Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, is the architect of Iran’s war on the West and Israel, including through Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group.
There was an airstrike on a convoy of vehicles at Baghdad airport, and reportedly Soleimani was killed along with the leader of the Iraqi militia aligned with Iran.
There have been many rumors of Soleimani’s death before, but now Iraqi TV is reporting his death, via AP:
Iraqi TV and three Iraqi officials said Friday that Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, has been killed in an airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport.The officials said the strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.
Al-Jazeera reports:
Ahmed al-Assadi, a spokesman for Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) umbrella grouping of Iran-backed militias, also confirmed the deaths of Soleimani and Muhandis.Two unnamed US officials told Reuters news agency that the US carried out the targeted airstrikes.Sources from the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) earlier told Al Jazeera that the rockets destroyed two vehicles carrying “high profile guests”, who had arrived at the airport and were being escorted by a PMF public relations official.
Puts this Trump tweet in perspective:
I was hesitant, given the past history of unconfirmed rumors. to post this, but now that the mainstream media is all over it and politicians are commenting on it, consider this a place to keep updated.
As we await confirmation, it’s worth noting some of the preliminary criticism from Democrats and former Obama officials:
The death is confirmed by Iranian official media, via NY Times:
Iranian official news media confirmed that a powerful commander of its Revolutionary Guards Corps, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, was killed in a strike on the Baghdad International Airport early Friday.
The Pentagon released this statement:
Trump’s first tweet after it was confirmed:
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