On January 4, 2020, Telegram channels affiliated with Iran-backed militias in Iraq posted responses to a BBC televised report that marked the first anniversary of the U.S. airstrike that killed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force General Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, on January 3, 2020.
The report, which included an interview with Hosham Dawood, the top advisor of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, prompted a series of death threats against him, after he told the BBC that the assassination of Soleimani and Al-Muhandis weakened the Iran-backed militias in Iraq, and suggested that these militias are now facing internal splits and are unable to fill the shoes of the two assassinated leaders.[1]