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| Trump ordered General Soleimani''s assassination. |
The Pentagon confirmed the death of
Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force and the architect of
Tehran's proxy wars in the Middle East. Three missiles hit the Baghdad airport,
killing five members of Iraqi paramilitary groups and two "guests",
Iraqi paramilitary groups said. The rockets landed near the air cargo terminal,
burning two vehicles.
Major-General
Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed in the
strike on their convoy near the Baghdad airport, an Iraqi militia spokesman
told Reuters. "The American and Israeli enemy is responsible for killing
the mujahideen Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Qassem Soleimani," said Ahmed
al-Assadi, a spokesman for Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces umbrella grouping
of Iran-backed militias.
"This
strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans," the Pentagon
said in a statement. It said the military took "decisive defensive action
to protect US personnel abroad by killing Qassem Soleimani" and that it
considered the Quds Force to be a foreign terrorist organisation.
"General
Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and
service members in Iraq and throughout the region," it said. "General
Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of
American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more.
"He
had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several
months — including the attack on December 27 — culminating in the death and
wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel. [He] also approved the
attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week."
In the
December 27 incident, a US civilian contractor was killed during a rocket
attack on a US military base in northern Iraq. The US military retaliated by
carrying out air strikes against Iranian-linked militia fighters in Iraq and
Syria. This in turn led to hundreds of pro-Iranian protesters and militia
attempting to storm the US embassy in Baghdad on New Year's Eve.
'This is bigger than taking out bin Laden'
A
former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezaei, vowed
"vigorous revenge" against America for the killing of General
Soleimani, describing him as a "martyr". "Martyr Lieutenant
General Qassem Soleimani joined his martyred brothers, but we will take
vigorous revenge on America," Mr Rezaei said in a post on Twitter.
Iranian
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the assassination would strengthen
resistance against the US and Israel in the region and the world, Iranian state
television reported. "The brutality and stupidity of American terrorist
forces in assassinating Commander Soleimani … will undoubtedly make the tree of
resistance in the region and the world more prosperous," Mr Zarif said in
a statement.
Academic
Ranj Alaaldin, author of Sacred Warriors, a recent book on Shiite militias and
the future of Iraq, said on Twitter that the significance of the hit could not
be overstated. "Make no mistake — this is bigger than taking out Osama bin
Laden," he wrote. General Soleimani, who was responsible for coordinating
foreign military actions, survived several assassination attempts against him
by Western, Israeli and Arab agencies over the past two decades.
Earlier
this week, top Iraqi militia commander al-Muhandis, also known as Jamal Jaafar
Ibrahimi, warned of a strong reaction against US forces following air strikes. "The
blood of the martyrs will not be in vain and our response will be very tough on
the American forces in Iraq," he said.
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| Ringed left hand was the only identifiable remain of General Soleimani. |
Mr Trump
tweeted a photo of the American flag without explanation just moments before
the US claimed responsibility for the air strike. The US is now urging citizens
to leave Iraq "immediately", citing "heightened tensions in Iraq
and the region".
"Due
to Iranian-backed militia attacks at the US Embassy compound, all consular
operations are suspended. US citizens should not approach the Embassy,"
the US State Department said in a statement.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the
Trump administration conducted the airstrike without consulting Congress or
having any authorisation to use military force against Iran. She said the move
"risks provoking further dangerous escalation of violence." Democratic
presidential candidate Joe Biden said Mr Trump had "tossed a stick of
dynamite into a tinderbox". The former vice-president joined other
Democratic White House hopefuls in criticising Mr Trump's order, saying it
could leave the US "on the brink of a major conflict across the Middle
East."
Democrats
also acknowledged the threat formerly posed by General Soleimani, with Senator
Elizabeth Warren calling him "a murderer, responsible for the deaths of
thousands, including hundreds of Americans." However she added, Mr Trump's
"reckless move escalates the situation with Iran and increases the
likelihood of more deaths and new Middle East conflict."
The
Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), has been
doing the dirty work behind the scenes for Iran for decades, playing divide and
conquer. The elite paramilitary arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
(IRGC) built up an extensive network in the war-torn country, recruiting Iraqis
and supporting not only Shiite militias but also Shiites allied with
Washington, D.C.
The
Quds Force and other elements operate covertly or sometimes openly overseas,
working with Hezbollah of Lebanon, Shiite militias in Iraq and Shiites in
Afghanistan. Ali Alfoneh, an Iranian-born scholar at the Foundation for the
Defense of Democracies, cast the strategy of the Quds Force as reflecting a
larger trend in Iranian society: its slow transformation from a radical Islamic
theocracy to a military dictatorship, with the IRGC assuming ever greater
powers.
“This
is an organization [that] has engaged in spreading sectarian terror in Iraq.
And now, this is the force that the Iraqi government has turned to for help in
order to liberate Tikrit from Islamic State [ISIS] terrorists,” Alfoneh told
Fox News in 2015. “In other words, we have one terrorist organization [that] is
helping the Iraqi government get rid of another terrorist organization.”
President Trump ordered the
game-changing U.S. military airstrike on Friday that killed the Quds Force
leader, Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the Pentagon confirmed. Soleimani is the
military mastermind who was the long-running leader of the elite intelligence
wing -- which itself has been a designated terror group since 2007 -- and is
estimated to be 20,000 strong. Considered one of the most powerful men in Iran,
he was routinely referred to as its “shadow commander” or “spymaster.”
“Despite
being outmanned, outgunned and outspent by its adversaries, Soleimani has
employed tactics including terrorist attacks, covert operations and the
outsourcing of fighting to foreign militias to undermine the sovereignty of
neighboring states and expand Iran’s military and diplomatic influence,"
he added.
The
Quds Force was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the United
States in April 2019. It was the first time the U.S. designated the arm of
another government as an FTO. The U.S. and European Union have accused the Quds
Force of providing weapons and other material support to help President Bashar
al-Assad suppress the uprising in Syria.
Military
analysts said the IRGC began deploying fighters abroad during the Iran-Iraq War
from 1980 to 1988, "exporting the ideals of the revolution throughout the
Middle East." The Quds Force emerged as the de facto external affairs
branch during the corps' expansion. In Afghanistan, the Quds Force supported
the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance starting in the mid-1990s.
In
2001, it shared intelligence with the United States to topple the Taliban,
reportedly prompting Soleimani to remark that "maybe it’s time to rethink
our relationship with the Americans." Relations soured in 2002, and U.S.
officials have since accused the Quds Force of arming and training the Taliban,
a useful tool to counter U.S. influence on Iran’s borders.
"What
Quds does is very specialized, the most dangerous work, operating
underground," Mahan Abedin, an Iran expert and the research director at
the London-based Center for the Study of Terrorism, said in 2007.
The Quds Force -- whose name means
"Jerusalem" in Farsi and Arabic -- is the most elite and covert of Iran's
military branches. Over the past two decades, the corps is believed to have
helped arm and train the Hezbollah guerrilla group in Lebanon, Islamic State
(ISIS) fighters in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and even Sudanese troops fighting in
South Sudan.
The
force is part of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which are separate from the
regular military, report directly to Iran's Supreme Leader and are tasked with
protecting Iran's Islamic government. The Quds Force, first formed in the 1980s
and picked from the very best of the IRGC, is its special branch for operations
outside Iran.
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