Blood-red skies loom over southeast Australia after deadly bushfires bring 'one of worst days ever' - CNN

Photographs of Pambula, in the state of New South Wales, showed an eerie, smoke-filled landscape, with deserted streets illuminated by an otherworldly, blazing red sky.

About 30 kilometers (19 miles) south, blood-red skies loomed over the town of Eden. There, hundreds of residents were seeking shelter on the beach on police advice, one Eden resident told CNN. Many houses have been destroyed in the area, and officials said they feared there would be fatalities.

A total of 146 fires are burning across the state, with 65 uncontained, according to the NSW Rural Fire Service (NSWRFS). About 2,700 firefighters were tackling the blazes on Sunday.

"Conditions have eased today and firefighters have gained the upper hand on several dangerous fires. There are no total fire bans in place for Monday," the NSWRFS posted on Twitter.

Earlier, NSWRFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told a news conference that Saturday was "one of our worst days ever on record."

A "considerable number" of properties were lost across NSW on Saturday, Fitzsimmons said, adding that a 47-year-old man had died from cardiac arrest while fighting a fire threatening his friend's home in Batlow. The man is the 24th person to die nationwide this fire season.

Separately, four firefighters in NSW were hospitalized due to smoke inhalation, heat exhaustion and hand burns. They have since been released.

Fitzsimmons said that conditions could worsen again in the coming days. "Today will be a relief -- psychological relief but not what we need," he said.

Australia's flag carrier Qantas canceled all flights to and from the country's capital, Canberra, on Sunday due to smoke and hazardous weather conditions.

An airline passenger spotted huge clouds caused by the fires over NSW during a flight from Sydney to Melbourne on Sunday. They are pyrocumulonimbus clouds -- fire-induced thunderstorms -- which form when hot air rises from a ground based fire, according to CNN meteorologists. The air cools and condenses as it ascends, causing a cloud to form.

"This process is similar to the development of a thunderstorm," said CNN Weather's Derek Van Dam. "As such, a downdraft forms within the base of the pyrocumulonimbus cloud, allowing for embers to be picked up and carried to form new fires."

In the neighboring state of Victoria, three fires have combined to form a single blaze bigger than the New York borough of Manhattan. The fires joined overnight Friday in the Omeo region, creating a 6,000-hectare (23 square mile) blaze, according to Gippsland's Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.

The country's capital, Canberra, smashed its heat record of 80 years, reaching 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday afternoon, according to the country's Bureau of Meteorology. In the western Sydney suburb of Penrith, the mercury climbed to 48.9 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) -- setting a new record for the whole Sydney basin.

Victoria has declared a state of disaster, and NSW has declared a state of emergency -- both granting extraordinary powers and additional government resources to battle the fires.

It marked the first time Victoria has activated these powers since the 2009 Black Saturday fires, the deadliest bushfire disaster on record in Australia with 173 people killed and 500 injured.

Speaking at a news conference Sunday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was another difficult night across the country -- in particular in NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

Morrison -- who in December faced criticism for taking a vacation to Hawaii during the fires -- said the government's response was the most significant and comprehensive ever to a natural disaster.

"I believe that's where we need to focus our attention, and we are seeking to communicate that directly to Australians to ensure they have comfort that the response is matching the need," he said.

"Sure there's been a lot of commentary, there's been plenty of criticism. I've had the benefit of a lot of analysis on a lot of issues. But I can't be distracted by that, and the public, I know, are not distracted by that.

"What they need us to focus on, all of us actually, all of us focusing on the needs there and getting the support where it needs to go. That's very much where my focus is, and that's where it will continue to be."

In a news release on Sunday, the Australia Defence Force (ADF) said it was significantly increasing its support in fighting the massive fires and had called up 3,000 army reserve forces and others with specialist capabilities.

They will also provide aircraft, ships and its largest vessel, HMAS Adelaide, with helicopter landing capabilities.

One priority for the ADF will be to assist in evacuations of people in isolated communities. HMAS Adelaide, the Australian Navy's largest ship, arrived off the coast of Eden on Sunday as evacuations took place there.

Some ADF bases will be opened to house those displaced by the fires. Troops will also help move material and supplies, support recovery centers, and aid in fire trail clearance.

New Zealand and Singapore have also offered military support, and the ADF is assessing where they can help, the news release said.

CNN's Anna Coren, Nectar Gan, Jennifer Hauser, Angus Watson and Susanna Capelouto contributed reporting.

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2020-01-05 07:49:00Z
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Qassem Soleimani death: U.S. long watched Iranian general but feared the fallout of a strike - CBS News

In 2007, U.S. commandos watched as a convoy carrying a powerful Iranian military leader made its way to northern Iraq. It was a prime opportunity to take out Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who had been accused of aiding Shiite forces that killed thousands of American troops in Iraq. 

But ultimately, military leaders passed on a strike, deferring to deep concerns about the potential fallout of such a provocative attack. 

"To avoid a firefight, and the contentious politics that would follow, I decided that we should monitor the caravan, not strike immediately," retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal wrote last year in Foreign Policy.

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Fears about the repercussions and reverberations of a targeted killing of Soleimani persisted throughout the administrations of President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama according to officials who served under both. Soleimani, they calculated, was just as dangerous dead and martyred as he was alive and plotting against Americans.

That approach came to an end this week when President Donald Trump authorized an airstrike that killed Soleimani. 

A burning vehicle at the Baghdad International Airport following an airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, early Friday, January 3, 2020. Iraqi Prime Minister Press Office via AP

But some former administration officials argued that despite Soleimani's role in orchestrating deadly attacks on U.S. troops, Mr. Trump's decision may ultimately put Americans in the region at heightened risk.

"Previous presidents have had the opportunity to take measures like what we saw last night but have held back because of the risks entailed and the questions that were there about where this would all lead," said Derek Chollet, an assistant secretary of defense during the Obama administration. "Unfortunately, those questions are not any clearer today."

Indeed, Mr. Trump's strike against Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, thrusts Washington and Tehran into uncharted territory after months of rising tensions. It's unclear how or when Iran will respond, or whether that response will pull the U.S. deeper into a military conflict abroad.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said officials were well aware of the prospect of retaliation, but believed "the risk of inaction exceeded the risk of action." 

Previous administrations weighed concerns about Iranian retaliation as they monitored Soleimani, who kept a low profile and traveled only to countries like Iraq where the Quds Force already had strong security. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan and former CIA analyst who tracked Soleimani's activities, said there was a "simple question" that prevented both the Bush and Obama administrations from targeting the Iranian leader.

"Was the strike worth the likely retaliation and the potential to pull us into a protracted conflict?" Slotkin said. "The two administrations I worked for both determined that the ultimate ends didn't justify the means."

Former Obama administration officials told The Associated Press discussions about taking out Soleimani never reached an operational phase. Beyond the risk of escalation with Iran, officials said they were uncertain that taking the Quds leader off the battlefield would have any impact on Tehran's regional aggression or support for terror groups.

The Obama administration also worried that killing Soleimani would undercut diplomatic efforts to forge a nuclear deal with Iran, according to one official, The AP reports. The U.S. and five other nations signed a nuclear accord with Tehran in 2015, but Mr. Trump withdrew from the pact after taking office. The officials insisted on anonymity in order to discuss internal national security deliberations.

The operation that killed Soleimani early Friday was set in motion after an American defense contractor was killed in late December in Kirkuk in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reported. 

"The attack on the base which killed an American was carried out by an Iranian-backed militia which is directly controlled, according to U.S. intelligence, by Soleimani," Martin reported. "So that is what got this going."

The U.S. military was simultaneously picking up intelligence in which Soleimani was talking about a "big action," according to Martin. "He was traveling around the Middle East in what U.S. intelligence believed were a final series of briefings with local militias before this so-called 'big action' was put into play."

He was in Syria then went to Lebanon and flew to Iraq. "When he landed at Baghdad airport there were two Reaper drones circling overhead," Martin said. Soleimani got into one vehicle while others in his party got into another vehicle. They then took off down the airport road, which is when the drones fired two missiles at each vehicle and "scored direct hits," Martin said.

"You have these relatively small explosions … setting off what promises to be a real earthquake in the Middle East," Martin said. 

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2020-01-04 13:48:00Z
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Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander threatens attacks on 'vital' US destroyers, warships - Fox News

A senior military official in Iran threatened an attack on some 35 “American targets,” including “destroyers and warships” near the Persian Gulf Friday night, promising to seek revenge for the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, according to a report.

The latest threat against the U.S. came late Friday night from senior Revolutionary Guards commander Gen. Gholamali Abuhamzeh, a day after top Iranian military general Soleimani was wiped out by an airstrike at Baghdad International Airport.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU PLACES MILITARY ON HIGH ALERT, PRAISES TRUMP FOR SOLEIMANI KILLING: HE ‘DESERVES ALL THE CREDIT’ 

Abuhamzeh, commander of the Revolutionary Guards in the southern province of Kerman, foreshadowed a possible attack on “vital American targets” located in the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation of Soleimani’s death.

Mourners chant anti U.S. slogans during the funeral of Iran's top general Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

“The Strait of Hormuz is a vital point for the West and a large number of American destroyers and warships cross there,” Abuhamzeh said according to a Reuters report, citing Tasnim news agency.

“Vital American targets in the region have been identified by Iran since long time ago ... some 35 U.S. targets in the region, as well as Tel Aviv, are within our reach."

In addition to threatening the U.S. with a possible attack, Abuhamzeh's remarks that the targets had been previously “identified by Iran” seemed to confirm the State Department’s statement regarding the motivation behind the airstrike.

SOLEIMANI FUNERAL PROCESSION IN BAGHDAD DRAWS THOUSANDS OF MOURNERS CHANTING ‘AMERICA IS THE GREAT SATAN’ 

His comments come after it U.S. defense officials told Fox News that more than 3,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team would be deployed to Kuwait.

Iran’s top “shadow commander,” as Soleimani was known, was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more. According to the State Department, the airstrike “was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans.”

“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region," the department said. "The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.”

Mourners gathering in the streets of Baghdad Saturday for Soleimani’s funeral procession. Dressed in black military fatigues, the mostly male-dominated group carried Iraqi flags and the flags of Iran-backed militias that are fiercely loyal to Soleimani.

In this image made from a video, mourners gather for a funeral procession for Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020. (PMF Media Office via AP)

They were heard chanting "No, No, America," and “Death to America, death to Israel.”

The U.S. has since ordered all citizens to leave Iraq and closed its embassy in Baghdad, where Iran-backed militiamen and their supporters staged two days of violent protests earlier this week in which they breached the compound.

WHAT IS THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ, WHERE IRAN SHOT DOWN US NAVY DRONE?

An alert brigade of roughly 4,000 paratroopers, known as the DRB – the Division Ready Brigade – had been told to pack their bags for a possible deployment in the days ahead, after hundreds of Iranian-backed militiamen tried to storm the U.S. embassy in Baghdad Tuesday.

The U.S. Army always keeps an alert brigade of roughly 4,000 paratroopers in the 82nd  Airborne for a crisis response like this.

There are roughly 5,000 U.S. troops currently deployed to Iraq, and about 60,000 in the region. Some 14,000 have been added since May as the threat from Iran increased, according to the Pentagon.

The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman is currently in the Gulf of Oman. Her strike group is armed with hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles, in addition to the dozens of strike aircraft aboard Truman.

In July last year, the Revolutionary Guard seized a British-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Several tankers were attacked in the weeks leading up to the seizure, which the U.S. blamed routinely on Iran.

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On top of that, Iran has been accused by the U.S. of launching cruise missiles and drones from its territory to bombard Saudi Arabia's oil installations.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2020-01-04 13:43:38Z
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Iran expert: U.S. airstrike was "stunningly stupid and counterproductive" - CBS This Morning

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2020-01-04 12:47:54Z
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Mass evacuation as catastrophic bushfires worsen in Australia - Al Jazeera English

Canberra, Australia - Bushfires continue to ravage the south-east of Australia, with unprecedented heat and drought leading to over 200 fire fronts burning across multiple states.

The catastrophic conditions saw the country's largest peacetime evacuation take place on Friday as towns prepared for the worst.

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With strong winds and temperatures of over 45 degrees Celsius across much of the region, more than 100,000 residents left evacuation zones in the three worst-affected states of New South Wales (NSW), Victoria and South Australia.

Both locals and tourists were strongly encouraged to leave by authorities, or face being stranded once access and supply routes were cut off by fire.

Twelve emergency warnings were issued in NSW and 13 in Victoria, and fire-generated thunderstorms were generated in multiple locations.

A time lapse of the pyrocumulous clouds forming above the Currowan fire this evening. It was recorded at around 7pm January 4 from Suttons Forest looking toward Bowral.
Thanks to Christopher Mortimer.#nswfires #nswrfs https://t.co/cW1VxtNI9c

— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) January 4, 2020

The fires have already burned more than 6 million hectares of land, equivalent to an area twice the size of Belgium or most of Ireland.

At least 23 people have died, dozens more are missing and at least 1,300 homes have been destroyed. Half a billion animals, including native wildlife and farm animals, are estimated to have died.

Towns on the NSW south coast were taken by surprise on New Year's Eve when a huge fire suddenly moved eastwards overnight.

On Saturday, roads were quiet and town centres deserted, but yellow-lidded recycling bins were placed outside homes to indicate where residents were staying to fight embers and spot fires.

Up to 3,000 military reservists were called up to tackle Australia's relentless bushfire crisis on Saturday as tens of thousands of residents fled their homes amid catastrophic conditions [Australian Department of Defence/Handout /AFP]

More than 20 new fires had broken out on the NSW south coast between Batemans Bay and Nowra by mid-afternoon, with flames reaching as high as 40 metres outside Nowra.

Thousands of locals took shelter in evacuation centres and on the beach as "too late to leave" warnings were issued for multiple areas. Telecommunications and electricity remain down in many of the small towns along the coast.

Canberra residents Julie and Jim Stuart left their holiday home at Mossy Point just south of Batemans Bay after days of preparation.

"Our house is on the cliff at Mossy Point," Julie Stuart told Al Jazeera. "If we had stayed, the only escape route would have been over the cliff."

"With the size of the flames and their ferociousness, there is no way we could defend our area if needed," she said. Her husband had initially wanted to stay but reconsidered after authorities warned them Mossy Point was likely "going to go".

'Completely unprecedented'

In Victoria, over 1,100 people and 115 pets were evacuated by two Australian Navy ships from the Gippsland town of Mallacoota.

They arrived in Hastings near Melbourne after sailing for 16 hours. More than 4,000 people have been isolated in Mallacoota since a massive firefront swept through on Monday night, when they were forced to shelter from the flames on the town's wharf and beach.

"It's a mass relocation of a nature which is completely unprecedented in Gippsland's history," said the local member of parliament, Darren Chester.

'Worst on record': Thousands flee as Australia's bushfires spread

In Canberra, the nation's capital, the temperature hit 43.6 degrees Celsius in the city centre on Saturday, breaking previous records from 1968 and 1969.

In one of the few positives to be found, air quality improved after two days of the world's worst air pollution according to AirVisual.

Smoke from nearby bushfires had been so bad that MRI machines at the Canberra Hospital were rendered unusable and Australia Post stopped deliveries.

Hardware and pharmaceutical shops sold out of protective face masks, while supermarkets on the capital's outskirts were emptied of food and water as locals prepared for the worst, fearing a repeat of the devastating 2003 bushfires.

In the nearby Snowy Mountains, also designated an evacuation region, ski resorts turned on their snow machines to protect infrastructure.

Fire crews were pulled out mid-afternoon from multiple areas in the Snowy Mountains as wind gusts of up to 60km/h began pushing fires rapidly forward and shooting embers far ahead of fronts. Electricity was affected in the region when the fire took out two electricity substations just before 6pm.

Troops to be deployed

Meanwhile, in the state of South Australia, a bushfire on Kangaroo Island had burned across at least 100,000 hectares of the island.

Two people were found dead in their burnt-out car, and the territories of large numbers of native animals, including endangered species such as dunnarts, bandicoots and Australia's only chlamydia-free koala population, have been ravaged.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been criticised for a slow and inadequate response to the bushfires. Morrison received a cold reception from residents of destroyed NSW town Cobargo on Friday, with locals and Rural Fire Service (RFS) firefighters refusing to shake his hand and accusing him of ignoring pleas for increased assistance prior to this fire season.

On Saturday afternoon, the federal government announced that 3,000 defence force reservists would be deployed to assist evacuation and recovery efforts. This is the first time in Australian history that a compulsory call-out has been issued for reservists.

For many Australians, both federal and state government responses were unsatisfactory. Writer Erin Riley established an online "find a bed" service for evacuees in Victoria and NSW at the end of last week when she learned just how many people needed temporary accommodation.

"Many people who have evacuated have done so with pets, or would rather stay in their community than go further away," Riley said. "We've had an overwhelming response, with almost 3000 Australians so far volunteering to open their homes."

On Saturday evening, NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told the media that a southerly wind change coming through could complicate the situation overnight.

"We are getting reports of significant damage and destruction ... in a number of these different fireground locations, given the speed and ferocity at which these fires are burning," Fitzsimmons said. "And I think we do, unfortunately, need to be ready [for bad news], probably tomorrow morning."

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2020-01-04 12:16:00Z
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Cries of ‘Revenge Is Coming’ at Funerals for Slain Commanders in Iraq - The New York Times

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 down the streets of Baghdad, waving flags and chanting, “Revenge is coming” to the United States.

The surprise killing on Friday of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force and one of the most powerful figures in the region, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi-Iranian deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Forces, the armed groups that are part of the Iraqi security forces, sent shock waves across the Middle East.

It also raised fears that the shadow war that had been building in the region between the United States and Iran could suddenly escalate into a major conflict.

General Suleimani, 62, was the architect of Iran’s network of ties with militant groups across the region, including in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

The extent of that network added to uncertainty about how Iran might respond to his killing. Tehran could do so from any of those places by targeting United States forces, or their allies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia or other countries in the Persian Gulf.

But even as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promised “forceful revenge” for the killing of General Suleimani, experts said it remained unclear whether Iran would make good on its threats. They noted that the country had to balance its need to show resolve against a staunch enemy and its reluctance to thrust itself into a full-scale war with the United States, a much stronger power.

The funerals were held against a backdrop of extreme regional tension as Iran and the United States signaled they could be on the brink of a potentially catastrophic war. Since the killing of General Suleimani and Mr. al-Muhandis, neither side has made another move — although both have made threats.

At the joint funerals, as close to a state ceremony as any since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a key pillar of Iran’s regional reach was on display in Baghdad. The mobilization fighters, faces somber and almost all dressed in black, carried a vast array of flags representing their different groups.

They chanted: “The blood of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis will not be spilled in vain. Revenge is coming.”

Precisely what kind of revenge was planned was not clear. But without giving details, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted on Saturday by the Tasnim news agency as saying that Iran would punish Americans wherever they are within reach of the Islamic Republic in retaliation for the killing of General Suleimani.

Gen. Gholamali Abuhamzeh, the commander of the Guards in the southern province of Kerman, raised the prospect of possible attacks on ships in the Gulf.

Iran reserved the right to take revenge against the United States for the death of Soleimani, he said in comments made late on Friday and reported on Saturday by Tasnim.

“The Strait of Hormuz is a vital point for the West, and a large number of American destroyers and warships cross there,” he said. “Vital American targets in the region have been identified by Iran since long time ago, some 35 U.S. targets in the region as well as Tel Aviv are within our reach.”

The loss of Mr. al-Muhandis was a profound one for the Iraqi fighters who saw him not just as a militia leader close to Iran, but also as someone who had helped rally the armed groups when they first formed in 2014 to fight the Islamic State. The extremists were then threatening to sweep from the north to Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

Many proclaimed during his funeral: “Our men do not fear America; each man dies on his day. Your voice, Abu Mahdi, remains the loudest one.”

General Suleimani’s body will be taken to Najaf, Iraq, a prominent Shiite burial place, then flown to Mashhad, Iran, on Sunday for a funeral service. A large state service is expected in Tehran on Monday, and the general is expected to be buried in his hometown, Kerman, on Tuesday, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported.

Amid the tensions, the United States has called on its citizens to leave Iraq, shuttered its embassy in Baghdad, sent additional Marines and on Thursday deployed 700 members of the 82nd Airborne Division to the region.

After the strike, President Trump said the attack had been intended “to stop a war” and warned Iran that the United States military had already identified targets for further strikes “if Americans anywhere are threatened.”

Among those attending the funeral on Saturday were Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of Iraq and a number of senior Shiite leaders, including Ammar al-Hakim; Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a former prime minister; Falih Al Fayad, the national security adviser; and Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the Badr Organization, which is both a political party and has one of the largest and oldest militias.

Missing from the cortege were Qais al-Khazali, the leader of one of the most notorious pro-Iran militias in Iraq, Asaib al-Haq; and Hamid al-Jazaeri, who leads the Khorasani Brigades, a pro-Iran militia.

Mr. Abdul Mahdi looked visibly upset as he walked surrounded by security officers in a sea of militia fighters. As Iraq’s leader, he has been caught between Iran, its neighbor, and the United States as the two have ratcheted up their confrontations.

The latest conflict started with a rocket attack a week ago that killed an American contractor working at an Iraqi military base in the north of the country. That was followed by an American attack on five Popular Mobilization militia bases in western Iraq and Syria that killed more than 24 people and set in motion the events that led to a nearly two-day siege of the United States Embassy in Baghdad.

After the funerals on Saturday, some mourners tried to again enter the Green Zone, the seat of the Iraqi government and many embassies. But they were pushed back, in contrast to a violent attack on Tuesday, when pro-Iranian protesters pushed past guards and laid siege to the American Embassy, effectively imprisoning diplomats inside, burning and looting the reception area and climbing inside the compound.

In Iran, the news media flooded its broadcasts and front pages with coverage of General Suleimani’s death, and even news outlets perceived to be more moderate called for revenge.

When President Hassan Rouhani of Iran paid his condolences on Saturday during a visit to General Suleimani’s home, he, too, spoke of revenge — but with an open-ended timeline.

“The Americans did not realize what a great mistake they made,” Mr. Rouhani said. “They will see the effects of this criminal act, not only today, but for years to come.”

Alissa J. Rubin and Falih Hassan reported from Baghdad, and Ben Hubbard from Beirut.

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2020-01-04 12:02:00Z
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Crowds gather in Baghdad to mourn military leaders killed by US airstrike - CNN International

Assifa Abbas, 50, is one of the thousands of Iraqis attending the funeral procession of Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. The atmosphere in the streets is a mixture of sadness and defiance.

Abbas, a mother of three fighters of the Popular Mobilization Units, the Iran-backed Iraqi militia, said she was hoping the attack will mark the end of America's presence in Iraq.

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the militia was killed alongside Soleimani.

"This strike killed our heroes but it created a thousand more Hajji Soleimanis and Muhandis's," she told CNN.

"If the parliament doesn't vote to expel the Americans, it will see the true face of the Iraqi street," she added.

Assifa Abbas is hoping for the end of the US presence in Iraq. Photo: Tamara Qiblawi/CNN

Former MP and a Turkmen leader, Fawzi Akram, is also hoping for the US withdrawal. "We hope this will result in the expulsion of the Americans ... the map of a new Iraq will be drawn with (Muhandis's) blood," he told CNN.

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2020-01-04 10:37:00Z
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