Iraq, US-led coalition denies conducting Baghdad airstrike ahead of Soleimani funeral

BAGHDAD-Reuters

The Iraqi military and the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIL said on Jan. 4 it did not conduct any airstrikes near Camp Taji north of Baghdad.

Earlier on Jan. 4, Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces umbrella grouping of paramilitary groups said airstrikes near camp Taji had killed six people and critically wounded three.

Iraqi state television had said they were U.S. airstrikes.

"FACT: the coalition ... did not conduct airstrikes near Camp Taji (north of Baghdad) in recent days," a spokesman said on Twitter.

The PMF said the attacks hit a convoy of medics, not senior leaders as reported in some media.

A U.S. airstrike on Baghdad airport on Jan. 3 killed Qassem Soleimani, Tehran's most prominent military commander and the architect of its growing influence in the Middle East, and the leader of Iraq's PMF Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

The overnight attack, authorized by U.S. President Donald Trump, was a major escalation in a "shadow war" in the Middle East between Iran and the United States and American allies, principally Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The PMF are holding an elaborate funeral procession for both men and others who died in the same airstrike starting in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, moving towards the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala and ending in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf.

Thousands had already gathered in Baghdad ahead of the start of the procession early on Saturday morning, some waving Iraqi and militia flags.