“At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the Pentagon said.
“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” the statement added.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed the news in a statement and said that Soleimani was killed alongside the deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis as well as a number of other PMF officers near Baghdad airport.
The IRGC said US helicopter gunships fired four rockets at a PMF convoy as it was leaving Baghdad airport.
“The US' act of international terrorism, targeting & assassinating General Soleimani—THE most effective force fighting Daesh (ISIS), Al Nusrah, Al Qaeda et al—is extremely dangerous,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a tweet. “A foolish escalation. The US bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism.”
US President Donald Trump tweeted an American flag.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2020
Brett McGurk, former US presidential envoy to the Global Coalition against Islamic State, who had dealings with Soleimani indirectly, cautioned about the “unknowable consequences” of the US action. “The news out of Iraq is a measure of justice done but with unknowable consequences. We need to protect our people throughout the Middle East and presume a war posture,” McGurk tweeted. “We must also reinforce our position in Iraq and maintain our coalition presence. Mitigate boomerang risks.”
Kaywan Khosravi, spokesperson for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council which takes major national security decisions, said the council was meeting to discuss the “criminal act” which led to the killing of Soleimani, according to IRGC-affiliated Farsnews.
Soleimani was born in 1956 in the village of Qanat Malak in the central province of Kerman. He came to prominence during the Iran-Iraq war after he joined the IRGC as a young man.
