Iraqis denounced on Monday the US airstrikes in Iraq, including an airstrike that killed two militia leaders two years ago, stressing that such attacks violate their country’s sovereignty and brought destruction to the country.
“America violates the laws in everything, and it hit Iraq at Baghdad International Airport, which led to the martyrdom of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Qassem Soleimani. This is a violation of the Iraqi sovereignty, and for us, this is a major crime,” Ahmed Kamal Abdul-Hassan, a shop owner told Xinhua.
Abdul-Hassan referred to the deadly attack on January 3, 2020, by a US drone on a convoy near Baghdad International Airport that assassinated the Iranian Commander Qassem Soleimani and Deputy Chief of Iraq’s paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Abdul-Hassan also said that the United States “brought chaos, terrorism, and all criminals to Iraq,” adding that “the US wants to control all Arab countries.”
For his part, Mustafa Razzaq, a college student, told Xinhua that the airstrike that assassinated Soleimani and al-Muhandis “is a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty. In general, everyone agrees that it is a terrorist strike.”
“America brought false democracy and freedom. They claim it is freedom, but it is a false freedom,” noted Mustafa.
Ali Abdul-Hassan, a government employee, told Xinhua that after Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled by US-led troops in 2003, many people thought that the United States would bring development, prosperity, and progress to the country.
But “the US interest was above everything, and its invasion into Iraq was only to control the oil and the Iraqi economy to make Iraq completely dependent on the American side,” he concluded.
The US airstrike that killed Soleimani and al-Muhandis sparked tension and reprisal attacks between Iran and the United States on Iraqi soil.
Two days after the airstrike, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in the country.
On Dec. 29, 2021, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi confirmed the end of the US-led coalition forces’ combat mission in Iraq after the withdrawal of the forces from the country.
