TEHRAN- Iran and Iraq have held a joint nautical parade on a border river to honor the assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi companion Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a U.S. drone attack in 2020.

On Saturday, 313 heavy and light warships from the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Basij volunteer troops, and Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), marched into the Arvand international waterway.

The PMU central command and the Third Naval Region of the IRGC Navy provided sponsorship for the event. Several officials from Iraq and Iran were present.

The joint march, according to Admiral Mehdi Hashemi of the IRGC’s Third Naval Region, symbolizes the solidarity of the Iranian and Iraqi people in following the two heroes’ example and standing up against superpower arrogance on a worldwide scale.

“Arrogant powers had better realize that freedom-loving nations and the Axis of Resistance, under the tutelage of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, and Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, will continue the struggle until the eradication of the Zionist regime,” Hashemi said.

On January 3, 2020, General Soleimani, commander of the IRGC Quds Force, Muhandis, the PMU’s second-in-command, and their companions were assassinated in a drone attack authorized by then-U.S. President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport.

Both commanders were held in high regard across West Asia, owing in large part to their pivotal role in combating the Daesh terrorist group.

In revenge for the assassination, the IRGC launched a barrage of missiles at the U.S.-run Ain al-Asad facility in the western province of Anbar, Iraq, on January 8, 2020. 

According to the Pentagon, the counterstrike caused “traumatic brain injuries” to over 100 U.S. soldiers. But according to the IRGC, Washington uses the word to downplay the number of Americans killed in the strikes. According to Iran, the missile attack against Ain al-Assad was merely a “first slap.”