BAGHDAD — Throngs of Iraqis gathered on the streets of the capital, Baghdad, in the early hours of Friday to protest the United States military presence in the country at the behest of populist and armed forces in Iraq with ties to Iran. The demonstration comes three weeks after the United States launched a drone strike in the city that killed the Iranian commander Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani and a prominent member of the Iraqi government, heightening tensions in the region and triggering calls by some for the expulsion of American troops from Iraq. The protest on Friday was the first designed specifically to denounce the American presence in Iraq since the country’s Parliament approved a measure calling for United States troops to leave. Organizers were hoping for a turnout larger than anything in recent years. “Participating in this demonstration is like voting in a referendum on the decision of the Iraqi Parliament” to expel American forces, said Sheikh Satar al-Shimmari, from Diyala Province, who was organizing busloads of people to attend.

Source: New York Times January 24, 2020 09:47 UTC