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VeteransToday (amongst others) have shown this image, and claimed it shows Iranian General Soleimani who was recently killed by US drones with American Troops:

Men walk surrounded by troups in uniform

This version of the image is from RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty, January 03, 2020 where it was captioned:

Soleimani personally oversaw dozens of operations by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.

It also appears in the International Business Times, August 26, 2015 with the caption

Iranian general Qasem Soleimani (c) pictured with Iraqi troops on the front line in Tikrit

I think these "Iraqi troops" would be the "Iranian backed militias".

Veterans Today captions the image as

General Soleimani with American Troops in Iraq

Does this image show US troops?

gerrit
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Keith McClary
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  • I'm not an expert on this, but the man on the far left appears to be wearing something like the US military's DCU: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Camouflage_Uniform – kyle Jan 07 '20 at 14:01
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    @Evargalo Veterans Today does, but it's "a pro-Kremlin and antisemitic conspiracy theory and fake news website", so their claims should be taken with a truckload of salt. AFAIK, no other source makes the claim. I'm not quite sure what exactly VT wants to express here either, but the explicit claim that the photo is censored is evidently false (see the IBT article or this [Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/why-irans-qassem-suleimaini-is-everywhere-2015-3) one), and the implied claim that it is related to current affairs also seems questionable, seeing as it is from 2015. – tim Jan 07 '20 at 15:06
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    @kyle: I considered tackling this question by showing that the man on the far left is actually wearing a Iraqi uniform, but two things stopped me: (1) Who am I to say 'this uniform is consistent with Iraqi troops in this other photo'? Someone is going to say "No, the model of the helmet is slightly different, and that the sticker on the gun is pro-US", and I won't be able to justify my position. (2) I am not even sure what part of this image is meant to be US troops. Which of the various uniforms shown? Or is it the vehicles? Or am I supposed to recognise some of the men as top US brass? – Oddthinking Jan 07 '20 at 23:45
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    The real issue is the OP had already answered the question by showing the source of the images doesn't match the claim. Asking us to be more definitive is difficult. – Oddthinking Jan 08 '20 at 01:55
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    @kyle: I wouldn't be surprised if the US took the opportunity to sell uniforms to Iraq. In fact, the WP article you lilnked to mentions Iraq as a (former) user of DCU, though without a source. – Jörg W Mittag Jan 09 '20 at 17:27

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