Iraqis are getting fed up with Iran

“ASTAIN ON Iraq’s sovereignty.” That is how an Iraqi army officer describes the billboard glorifying Qassem Suleimani, a stunningly successful Iranian commander who was killed in an American air strike on Iraqi soil in January 2020. The hoarding looms over Baghdad’s administrative district, known as the Green Zone. Many Iraqis once hailed Suleimani as hero for mobilising local forces that beat back the jihadists of Islamic State. But public sentiment in Iraq has turned. The masses who cheered Iran as a liberator increasingly see it as an occupying power. Iraqi politicians are trying to loosen its grip.Iranian-backed militias still hold sway in much of Iraq. Many were involved in the violent suppression of anti-government protests that erupted in 2019. Lately, though, they have lowered their profile. They hang fewer placards celebrating their ayatollahs and generals, and appear less often in the streets. They miss the guidance of Suleimani and Abu Mahdi Muhandis, the Iraqi head of an umbrella group of pro-Iranian militias, who was killed in the same air strike. With no clear chain of command, the militias are splintering. They were expected to mark the anniversary of the air strike with a show of force. Thousands of Iraqis marched in Baghdad; the wreck of the car in which Suleimani was killed was displayed. But there were no big retaliatory strikes on American targets.