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.
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.
