{"id":200230,"date":"2020-01-03T08:31:13","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T08:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=200230"},"modified":"2020-01-05T08:23:41","modified_gmt":"2020-01-05T08:23:41","slug":"qassim-soleimani-head-of-irans-elite-quds-force-assassinated-in-us-airstrike-at-baghdad-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=200230","title":{"rendered":"Qassim Soleimani, head of Iran&#8217;s elite Quds Force, assassinated in US airstrike at Baghdad airport"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Chris Graham \u2013 The Telegraph Jan 3, 2020<\/h1>\n<div id=\"attachment_133039\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2002\/10\/IRGC-commander-Gen-Soleimani-pictured-in-syria-recently-with-Iraqi-Shia-fighters-near-Aleppo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-133039\" class=\"wp-image-133039\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2002\/10\/IRGC-commander-Gen-Soleimani-pictured-in-syria-recently-with-Iraqi-Shia-fighters-near-Aleppo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"342\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-133039\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">IRGC commander Gen Soleimani pictured in Syria recently with Iraqi Shia fighters near Aleppo. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">General Qassim Soleimani, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2020\/01\/03\/qassim-soleimani-shadowy-iranian-general-undermined-washington\/\">head of Iran&#8217;s elite Quds Force<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, was killed in a US airstrike at Baghdad&#8217;s international airport early on Friday, an assassination that marks a\u00a0major escalation in US-Iran tensions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The strike\u00a0also\u00a0killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Pentagon said <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2020\/01\/03\/us-lawmakers-not-told-attack-qassim-soleimani-top-democrats\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>US President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Soleimani<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0&#8220;in a decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;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,&#8221; the Department of Defence said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">After the attack, Mr Trump tweeted a picture of the American flag, without any explanation.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"und\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/VXeKiVzpTf\">pic.twitter.com\/VXeKiVzpTf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1212924762827046918?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 3, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">US\u00a0officials told Reuters that Soleimani had been killed in a drone strike.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The killing of Soleimani\u00a0 is a major blow for Iran.\u00a0Together with the death of Muhandis, the attack could mark\u00a0a potential turning point in the Middle East and is\u00a0expected to draw severe retaliation from Iran and the forces it backs in the Middle East against Israel and American interests.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Iran warns of &#8216;harsh retaliation&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Iran&#8217;s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that a &#8220;harsh retaliation is waiting&#8221; for the US.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The Iranian state TV carried a statement by Khamenei also calling Soleimani &#8220;the international face of resistance.&#8221; Khamenei declared three days of public mourning for the general&#8217;s death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">President Hasan Rouhani\u00a0 said Iran and the &#8220;free nations of the region&#8221; will take revenge on the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;There is no doubt that the great nation of Iran and the other free nations of the region will take revenge for this gruesome crime from criminal America,&#8221; Rouhani said in a statement posted on the Iranian government website.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Iran&#8217;s top security body called an urgent meeting on Friday, semi-official news agency ISNA reported.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;In a few hours, an extraordinary meeting of the Supreme National Security Council will be held to review the murderous attack on the vehicle of General Soleimani in Baghdad that lead to his martyrdom,&#8221; ISNA quoted its secretariat spokesman Keyvan Khosravi as saying.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the assassination &#8220;an extremely dangerous and foolish escalation&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8220;The US\u00a0bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism,&#8221; he said in a post on Twitter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2020\/01\/03\/air-strike-kills-qassim-soleimani-head-irans-elite-quds-force\/\">Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran warns of \u2018harsh retaliation\u2019 as the man who played a key role in the fight against ISIS is killed in a U.S. drone strike <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,51,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-Iran","category-Iraq"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=200230"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200234,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200230\/revisions\/200234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=200230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=200230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=200230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}