BAGHDAD (Dispatches) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia’ al-Sudani has paid tribute to top Iranian commander General Qassem Soleimani and his trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, saying their assassination amounted to “a brazen attack” on Iraq’s sovereignty.
“The crime of assassinating the ‘Commanders of Victory’ and their companions represented a flagrant violation of Iraq’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty,” Sudani told a commemoration ceremony for the two legendary commanders held here Thursday.
“The assassination of these two commanders, who had a leading role in elimination of the scourge of terrorism, is an utter disrespect to bilateral agreements” signed between Baghdad and Washington, he added.
Sudani said the fight against dark terrorism requires power and resilience, adding and this came through the national spirit of all Iraqis and the fatwa issued by Iraq’s leading religious authority Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
His government, Sudani said, is working to build a solid foundation for Iraqi sovereignty.
It is independent in decision-making, forging relations on the basis of common interests, safeguarding the country’s sovereignty and territorial waters, and sparing no effort to repel any act of aggression against the Iraqi nation, he added.
Chairman of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council Faiq Zidane decried the assassination of Muhandis and Gen. Soleimani as “a vile and cowardly act.”
He said the Iraqi judiciary bears the responsibility to shed light on all circumstances surrounding the U.S. assassination, calling on the country’s security institutions to provide judicial authorities with all necessary documents and findings in the case.
Zidan said Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council has issued an arrest warrant for former U.S. president Donald Trump over the assassination. Trump, the Iraqi official said, has confessed to his “crime” in assassinating the “Leaders of Victory.”
He called on all Iraqi officials involved in investigations into the assassinations to try their utmost, and identify all related architects, organizers and culprits.
Chairman of Hashd al-Sha’abi Falih al-Fayyadh said Muhandis and Gen. Soleimani fought the enemies when Iraq was behest with its worst problems.
General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Muhandis, and their companions were assassinated in the U.S. drone strike near Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.
Two days after the attack, Iraqi lawmakers approved a bill requiring the government to end the presence of all foreign military forces in the country.
Both commanders were highly revered across the Middle East because of their key role in fighting Daesh terrorists, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
Five days after the assassination, the IRGC pummeled the U.S. base of Ain al-Asad in Iraq’s Anbar province with a barrage of missile attacks.
According to the Pentagon, more than 100 American forces suffered “traumatic brain injuries” from the strike. The IRGC, however, says Washington uses the term to mask the number of the Americans who perished during the retaliation.
Iran has described the missile attack on Ain al-Assad as a “first slap”.