Iran’s commander Qassim Soleimani killed in US airstrike in Iraq

Bidur AdhikariJanuary 3, 2020

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January 3 – Iran’s ‘shadow commander’ Qassim Soleimani is reportedly killed in US airstrike in Iraq on Friday morning.

Qassim Soleimani, the Iranian general responsible for spreading Shiite influence across the Middle East and marshaling Tehran’s proxy terrorist forces, was killed in an airstrike in Iraq on Thursday night.

(FILES) In this picture taken on September 14, 2013, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, Gen. Qassem Suleimani, is seen as people pay their condolences following the death of his mother in Tehran. For a man widely reported to be playing a key role in helping Iraq’s routed military recover lost ground, Qassem Suleimani, 57, the commander of Iran’s feared Quds Force, remains invisible. AFP PHOTO/ISNA/MEHDI GHASEMI (Photo by MEHDI GHASEMI / ISNA / AFP) (Photo credit should read MEHDI GHASEMI/AFP via Getty Images)

Iranian sources immediately blamed the United States, ratcheting up fears of a full-fledged conflict between the two countries and terrorist reprisals against U.S. targets worldwide. The Pentagon later confirmed that Soleimani was killed by the U.S. on President Trump’s orders.

Soleimani, 62, was killed in an airstrike near Baghdad International Airport along with Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, head of the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces. The general was referred to as Tehran’s “shadow commander” during his time as the head of the Quds Force, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responsible for conducting special operations outside Iranian territory.