The first nights of 2020 were harsh for Iraqis who stayed up late following the accelerating developments and resulting feelings about a possible Iranian-American war on the country territory after a US drone killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, along with several others, near the Baghdad airport Jan. 3. 

The assassination left Iraqis divided and led many American oil workers to flee Iraq the same day amid fears of an expected Iranian retaliation. It also cast a dark shadow over the country’s widespread civil protests that erupted in Baghdad and major southern cities Oct. 1. 

\“[US President Donald] Trump committed a catastrophic mistake by killing Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis as he handed over a large part of Iraqi Shiites to Iran again after a large section of them turned against Iran's interventions in Iraq since October’s demonstrations,” Ali Bashar, a political scientist at Bayan University in Erbil, told Al-Monitor. “This action has also increased the hostility of the USA’s enemies in Iraq, namely the Binaa Alliance,” he added. 

Soleimani, who was the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, was a major player in Iran’s dominating influence over Iraq,