Thousands of people attended a funeral procession in Baghdad on January 4 for those killed one day earlier in a U.S. air strike, including top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi joined the procession, as did many Iraqis carrying the flags of Iranian-backed militias.

On January 3, a U.S. air strike in Baghdad killed Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian commander who led the elite Quds Force wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Soleimani was considered one of the most powerful men in Iran and the architect of Tehran's foreign policy in the region.