Baghdad: Iranian Major-General and head of elite Quds force, Qasem Soleimani, was killed by an U.S. air strike on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed, calling the death “decisive defensive action.” Many experts believe that his death is likely to generate retaliation from Iran against the United States. Iraqi state television reported that besides Soleimani, Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was also killed in the attack.

President Trump’s response:


Qasem Soleimani’s Convoy Was Hit at Baghdad’s Airport, Says Reports

Al Jazeera reported that the incident appeared to be a targeted strike and according to sources the rockets destroyed two vehicles carrying "high profile guests". “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 Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the Department of Defense statement read. “General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.”


Qasem Soleimani “had been rumored dead several times.”

According to the Associated Press, Soleimani “had been rumored dead several times.” One time the news agency had reported that Soleimani was killed in plane crash in 2006 among other officials. Another time was a 2012 Damascus bombing. In 2015, there were also rumors he had been killed.


The most powerful general in the Middle East Was Once Touted as a Presidential Candidate

Major General Qassem Soleimani was recognised as one of the most powerful general in the Middle East. His unique strategy of blending militant and state power helped Iran project its power across the Middle East, from Lebanon and Syria to Iraq and Yemen.


An Iraq official described Soleimani’s understated charisma to The New Yorker: “He is so short, but he has this presence. There will be ten people in a room, and when Suleimani walks in he doesn’t come and sit with you. He sits over there on the other side of room, by himself, in a very quiet way. Doesn’t speak, doesn’t comment, just sits and listens. And so of course everyone is thinking only about him.”

The enemy of the United States was the son of a farmer

According to the Soufan article, was born in a mountain village in southeast Iran near the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and his father, a farmer, once owed the government a lot of money after a botched land reform of the Shah.

U.S. Congressional reaction:

Chris Murphy, a U.S. Senator from Connecticut, wrote on Twitter, “Soleimani was an enemy of the United States. That’s not a question. The question is this – as reports suggest, did America just assassinate, without any congressional authorization, the second most powerful person in Iran, knowingly setting off a potential massive regional war?”


Soleimani was once known as the ‘Most Powerful Operative in the Middle East’

The New Yorker profile in 2013 quotes Soleimani a former C.I.A. officer as calling Suleimani “most powerful operative in the Middle East today.”  According to The New Yorker, the Qods force was named after the Persian word for Jerusalem, which it wants to “liberate.”