Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces have made preparations for a commemoration and a stage has been set up in the square.

Security was tight as people waved Iraqi and PMF flags and chanted pro-PMF slogans as women in black abayas and face masks placed lit candles and red roses at the scene.

On 3 January 2020, amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran, the U.S. launched a terrorist attack on a convoy traveling near Baghdad International Airport, killing ten passengers, including Iranian major general and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Quds Forces commander Qasem Soleimani, Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces commander Abu Mahdi al- Muhandis, four senior Iranian officers and four Iraqi officers.

On 8 January 2020, in a military operation code named Operation Martyr Soleimani, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched numerous ballistic missiles at the Ayn al-Asad airbase in Al Anbar Governorate, western Iraq, as well as another airbase in Erbil, in the Kurdistan Region, in response to the killing of Major General Qasem Soleimani by a United States drone strike.

While the U.S. initially assessed that none of its service members were injured or killed, the U.S. Department of Defense ultimately said that 110 service members had been diagnosed and treated for traumatic brain injuries from the attack.