A US drone air strike killed Maj Gen Qassem Soleimani, the powerful head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, in Baghdad on the night of 2/3 January. Soleimani had just arrived in Baghdad on a flight from Syria and was leaving the airport when he was hit. The attack also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, leader of Iranian militias in Iraq, which led attacks on US embassy.
Four precision missiles were fired from a deadly remote-controlled 4,900-pound U.S. drone, decimating a convoy that Soleimani was traveling in and tore his body ‘to shreds’.
The strike, regarded as perhaps the riskiest American move in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, threatened to inflame hostilities across the region.
Muhandis, who was killed with Soleimani, oversaw Iraq´s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), an umbrella grouping of paramilitary groups mostly consisting of Iran-backed Shi´ite militias that was formally integrated into Iraqi armed forces.
While American forces did not make it clear how they had tracked Soleimani’s location, he was thought to be under near-constant surveillance by US, Saudi and Israeli security forces. The attack drew upon a combination of highly classified information from informants, electronic intercepts, reconnaissance aircraft and other surveillance techniques. Soleimani survived several assassination attempts against him by Western, Israeli and Arab agencies over the past two decades.
The strike probably ended any prospect of negotiations to save the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the landmark nuclear agreement Iran signed in 2015 with the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany. The escalation in tensions between the United States and Iran began with the 2018 decision by US President Donald Trump to withdraw from the deal.
Quds Force
The US Defense Department said that the air strike was justified to protect American lives. ‘General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,’ a Pentagon statement said. The statement added that Soleimani ‘orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months’ including the embassy assault.
Quds Force, along with its stable of paramilitary proxies from Lebanon’s Hezbollah to the PMF in Iraq, has ample means to launch a multi-barrelled response against its enemies.
Quds Force, tasked with carrying out operations beyond Iran’s borders, shored up support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad when he looked close to defeat in the civil war raging since 2011 and also helped militiamen defeat Islamic State in Iraq.
Soleimani became head of the Quds Force in 1998, a position in which he kept a low profile for years while he strengthened Iran’s ties with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria’s government and Shi´ite militia groups in Iraq.
Soleimani, who has led the foreign arm of the Revolutionary Guards and has had a key role in fighting in Syria and Iraq, acquired celebrity status at home and abroad.
Trump’s Justification
The strike on 3 January was the latest escalation between the two nations after a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base, believed to have been carried out by an Iran-backed militia, killed an American contractor on 27 December.
The United States hit back with air strikes on an Iranian-backed militia that killed 24 and prompted outrage among some who saw that attack as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. Pro-Iranian demonstrators broke into the United States Embassy compound on 31 December. The breach prompted Trump to order roughly 750 additional American troops to be deployed to the region. The Pentagon was also ready to deploy 4,000 troops based at Fort Bragg for a similar security mission to Kuwait.
“Suleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him,” Trump said, speaking to reporters from his resort in West Palm Beach, Florida. “We took action last night to stop a war, we did not take action to start a war.”
Trump said the United States was not seeking regime change in Iran, but called for Tehran’s “aggression in the region” to immediately end. He also warned Iran against retaliating, saying, “If Americans anywhere are threatened, we have all of those targets already fully identified, and I am ready and prepared to take whatever action is necessary.”
In September, US officials blamed Iran for a devastating missiles and drones attack on oil installations of Saudi Aramco, the Saudi state energy giant and world’s largest oil exporter. The Trump administration did not respond, beyond heated rhetoric and threats.
Reactions of Iran’s Proxies
Iranian allies across the Arab world condemned the United States, reflecting the strength of the regional network Gen Suleimani spent much of his life building, including links to the government of Syria and militant groups in Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen and elsewhere.
The leader of Hezbollah vowed in a statement that his group would continue on the path the general set and “work night and day to achieve his goals.”
In Yemen, the administration run by the Houthi rebels condemned the United States strike as a “cowardly attack” that “makes clear the increasing American spite against all who are in favor of justice for the Islamic world.”
In Syria, a foreign ministry official condemned the “treacherous, criminal American aggression” that led to his killing.
Hamas condemned what it called “U.S. bullying” that it said served the interests of Israel.
World Powers’ Reaction
António Guterres, the United Nations’ secretary general, voiced his deep concern over the rise in tensions in the Middle East. “The world cannot afford another war in the Gulf,” spokesman Farhan Haq said in a statement. “This is a moment in which leaders must exercise maximum restraint,” it said.
China, Russia, the UK and France, all permanent members of the UN Security Council, took a dim view of the US air strike.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the killing of General Suleimani “an adventurist step that will increase tensions throughout the region,” according to local news agencies.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry called for restraint on all sides, “especially the United States.” “China has always opposed the use of force in international relations,” the spokesman, Geng Shuang, said at a daily news briefing.
Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, called for a de-escalation in tensions and said that further conflict in the region was not in his country’s interest. “We have always recognized the aggressive threat posed by the Iranian Quds force led by Qassim Suleimani,” Raab said in a statement. “Following his death, we urge all parties to de-escalate.”
In France, the country’s junior minister for European affairs, Amélie de Montchalin, said that she would soon consult with countries in the region. “We have woken up to a more dangerous world,” Ms. de Montchalin told French radio, calling for “stability and de-escalation.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel praised Trump for the strikes for “acting swiftly, forcefully and decisively.” Netanyahu cut short an official visit to Greece to return to Israel.
Congress was divided over the killing. The strike immediately spurred debate among American lawmakers about President Trump’s war powers and left congressional leaders sharply divided along party lines.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanded that the administration brief the full Congress on the strike and the next steps under consideration, noting that the move was made without lawmakers’ consultation or an authorization of military force.
The strike, Pelosi said in a statement, “risks provoking further dangerous escalation of violence. America – and the world – cannot afford to have tensions escalate to the point of no return.”
In stark contrast, Republican lawmakers – including both Iran hawks and those who have frequently clashed with Trump over his foreign policy – almost uniformly praised the move.
Iran’s Response
Soleimani’s death is a considerable blow to Tehran, and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called for retaliation and for three days of national mourning. Iran’s security body also pledged to avenge Gen Suleimani’s killing in the “right place and time,” saying it had reached a decision on how to do so.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Soleimani’s assassination would strengthen resistance against the United States and Israel in the region and the world. ‘The brutality and stupidity of American terrorist forces in assassinating Commander Soleimani…will undoubtedly make the tree of resistance in the region and the world more prosperous,’ Zarif said in a statement.
In the hours after the American strike, thousands of pro-Iranian social media accounts went to work.
Whether from actual accounts or state-backed bots, pro-Iranian and anti-American content was tweeted at a rate of 3,000 tweets every 45 minutes, according to New York Times data.
Iran may begin a digital campaign of cyber attacks and disinformation in retaliation for Gen Suleimani’s death. Over the past year, Iranian hackers have taken aim at Trump’s presidential campaign. They have also targeted telecom companies, infrastructure systems and more than 200 oil, gas and heavy machinery companies around the world.
Over the past five years, American officials and cyber security experts have tracked Iranian hackers as they have significantly advanced their capabilities beyond wiping data to sophisticated attacks on financial networks, internet infrastructure and energy companies.
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Where The Drone Struck
Gen Qassen Suleimani landed at Baghdad airport on a plane from either Syria or Lebanon around 12.30am. He was met on the tarmac by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq.
Soleimani and Mohammed Ridha Jabri, public relations chief for the PMF were driven away.
As the cars passed through a cargo area, the convoy was struck by missiles fired by an MQ-9 Reaper drone.
Both vehicles were instantly reduced to smoldering wrecks – killing Soleimani, Muhandis, Jabri and two others.
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MQ-9 Reaper
The unmanned drone that rains Hellfire from 50,000ft and can tear bodies ‘to shreds’
The devastating US drone has a range of 1,150 miles and is able to to fly at altitudes of 50,000 feet. It is an ‘armed, multi-mission, medium-altitude, long-endurance’ remotely piloted aircraft.
It is primarily used to execute targets – such as Soleimani – and secondarily to collect intelligence, according to the U.S. Air Force.
The drone is capable of annihilating targets with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles which provide ‘highly accurate’ and ‘low-collateral damage’ capabilities.
AGM-114 Hellfire missiles – which are laser guided and subsonic – are so powerful that they are used to take out tanks. They can also be used as an air-to-air weapon against helicopters and other aircraft.
The 4,900-pound drone has a wingspan of 66 feet and a cruising speed of roughly 230mph.
