ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish party officials on Sunday participated in a memorial to commemorate Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, killed in a US airstrike on Friday. 

On Friday, US airstrikes killed both Gen. Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, and  Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi). 

Representatives from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and Gorran (Change) Movement, the three largest Kurdish parties in the Kurdistan Region, visited the Iranian Consulate. They were received by Consulate General Nasrollah Rashnoudi. 

Gen. Soleimani was a regular visitor to the countries where Iranian influence runs deep, including the Kurdistan Region. Members and officials of Kurdish parties, including Kurdistan Region Representative to Washington Nazim Dabagh, describe Soleimani as a “calm” man who liked the Kurds and wanted good relations with them.

However, for many ordinary Kurds, Soleimani is remembered as a mastermind behind the Iraqi foiling of the Kurdistan Region’s independence bid in 2017.

Photos and text by Bilind T. Abdullah, translation by Mohammed Rwanduzy