Iran–Iraq relations

Two vehicles near the airport in Baghdad were hit in airstrikes and on that occasion, in addition to the second most powerful man in Iran, Qassem Soleimani, the top leader of the umbrella Shiite organization People's Mobilization Force (PMF) Abu-Mahdi al-Muhandis was killed.

The United States killed Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force and spearhead of Iran's spreading military influence in the Middle East, in an airstrike at Baghdad airport, the Pentagon and Iran said.

Top Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an adviser to Soleimani, was also killed in the attack, a militia spokesman said.

Iran-backed militias withdrew from the compound of the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, the Iraqi army said.

The protesters also dismantled their tents outside the Green Zone in Baghdad on the edge of the Tigris River, the Iraqi Ground Forces Command said in a written statement. 

Paramilitary groups who have been protesting against U.S. air strikes in Iraq told their supporters to withdraw from the perimeter of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Jan. 1.

The crowd did not actually begin withdrawing, according to a Reuters witness.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Dec. 31 that he has decided to immediately dispatch a battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division to Iraq following violent protests at the American embassy in Baghdad.

The U.S. has carried out air strikes against a pro-Iran militant group in Iraq, killing 19 fighters, two days after a rocket attack that killed an American civilian contractor.