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Pentagon confirms Trump ordered killing of Iran Guards commander
WASHINGTON, Jan 3, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump ordered the
killing of Iran Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, who died in
Baghdad “in a decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad,” the
Pentagon said.
“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American
diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. 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,”
the Department of Defense said.
Following Soleimani’s death, Trump tweeted an image of the US flag without
any further explanation.
The strike, which occurred at Baghdad’s international airport on Friday in
Iraq, also killed the deputy chief of Iraq’s powerful Hashed al-Shaabi
paramilitary force.
A pro-Iran mob this week laid siege to the US embassy following deadly
American air strikes on a hardline Hashed faction.
The US had called the strikes in response to a rocket attack days earlier
that had killed an American contractor working in Iraq.
The Baghdad airport was hit in a volley of missiles just after midnight
Friday, Iraq’s military had announced.
Security sources told AFP the bombardment hit a Hashed convoy and killed
eight people, including “important figures.”
Soleimani heads the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and also
serves as Iran’s pointman on Iraq, visiting the country in times of turmoil.
“At the direction of the President, the US military has taken decisive
defensive action to protect US personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani,
the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a US-designated
Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the Pentagon said.
“This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans,” it added.
The Pentagon said that Soleimani had orchestrated attacks on coalition
bases in Iraq over the past months, including on December 27, the day the US
contractor was killed.
“General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad
that took place this week,” it said.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0958 hrs