Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei addressed the nation on Saturday, marking the second anniversary of the assasination of Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
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"Our enemies thought that having assassinated Soleimani their job was done. But today, thanks to the blood of the jihads, the resistance is thriving and is more full of hope than ever. The United States has withdrawn from Afghanistan and reduced its troops in Iraq thanks to the vigilance of our brethren in Iraq. In Yemen, the resistance has progressed greatly and in Syria, our enemies are broken and without hope for the future.
"Commander Soleimani was a symbol that left its mark on the reality of our region. His killers, like President Trump and his associates, will be rejected and forgotten and thrown into the garbage heap of history, having paid for their crimes," Khamenei said in a speech that was broadcast on state television.
In Iraq, thousands of supporters of the pro-Iranian Hashed al-Shaabi alliance of armed groups marched to mark the second anniversary of the killing.
Chanting "Death to America", they filled a Baghdad square to honor Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Hamdi al-Muhandis – Hashed's deputy – who was killed along with him.
"US terrorism has to end" read one sign at the rally by backers of Hashed, a former paramilitary alliance that has been integrated into Iraq's state security apparatus.
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump ordered the strike that killed Soleimani near Baghdad's airport along with his lieutenant.
Since then, dozens of rockets and roadside bombs have targeted Western security, military, and diplomatic sites across Iraq.
Iraqi and Western officials have blamed hardline pro-Iran factions for the attacks, which have never been claimed by any group.
In February last year, the US carried out an airstrike against Kataeb Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitary force stationed along the Iraqi-Syrian border, following rocket attacks on its Baghdad embassy and a US military contracting firm north of the capital.
Hashed has repeatedly called for the withdrawal of US troops who are deployed in Iraq as part of a multinational coalition fighting jihadists of the Islamic State group.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
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