BAGHDAD — As Iraq held joint funeral services on Saturday for two revered military leaders killed in an American drone strike near the Baghdad airport this past week, tens of thousands of pro-Iranian fighters marched through Baghdad, waving flags and chanting that “revenge is coming” to the United States.
The surprise killing on Friday of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the architect of Iran’s regional security strategy, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a powerful Iraqi militia commander and government official, threatened to shift fault lines across the Middle East.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed “forceful revenge” as the country mourned the death of General Suleimani, and calls have accelerated to eject the United States from Iraq. Across the region, fears are rising that the shadow war that had been building between the United States and Iran could suddenly escalate into a wide-ranging conflict.
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