Drone Air Strike Kills Iran’s Security and Intelligence Commander Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani

Iraq state television reports that Quds Force General Qassem Soleimani has been killed by a US air strike on Baghdad.

Iran’s top security and intelligence commander Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani was killed early Friday January 3, 2020 in a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport. The drone strike, which was a pre-emptive strike and/or a retaliatory after an attack that killed an American contractor in Iraq in December 2019, was authorized by President Trump, according to American officials.

An American contractor, whose identity was not initially disclosed was killed, when a K1 military base housing US troops in Kirkuk province in northern Baghdad was attacked by katyusha rockets on Friday, December 27, 2019.

Also, protesters had attacked the US Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, December 31, 2019 scaling the walls and forcing the gates of the embassy compound, as hundreds protested previous American airstrikes on an Iran-backed militia group in Iraq. Additional Marines were dispatched to Baghdad while Iraqi counterterrorism forces were deployed around the perimeter of the US Embassy. Also additional troops were deployed to the Middle East in response to the embassy crisis.

Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, who led the powerful Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was killed Friday January 3, 2019 along with several officials from Iraqi militias backed by Tehran when an American MQ-9 Reaper drone fired missiles into a convoy that was leaving the Baghdad International Airport. The US Embassy in Baghdad is located about 15 miles from the airport.

General Suleimani is reported to be the architect of nearly every significant operation by Iranian intelligence and military forces over the past two decades. Suleimani’s death was considered a strategic below to Iran, but was followed by debate in the United States whether it would trigger an expensive war with Iraq or an increase in terrorism, or whether it would represent a controlled and measured response to convert an increasingly dangerous and emboldened Iran to a defeated Iran.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, founded after the Iranian Revolution on April 22, 1979 by order of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The IRGC is designated as a terrorist organization by the governments of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Fox News Exclusive: After the U.S. Embassy attack in Iraq, Defense Secretary Mark Esper tells ‘America’s Newsroom’ that actions by Iran or its proxies will be met with a severe and strong response by U.S. forces.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham tells ‘Fox & Friends’ that the Trump administration needs to make clear the consequences of any retaliation against the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.

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Here is a report on Twitter from Masih Alinejad (@AlinejadMasih) that many citizens are not mourning the death of Qassem Soleimani.

For many Iranians Qassem Soleimani was a warmonger who caused massive casualties in Syria. He was no hero to average Iranians who chanted against the country’s support for Hezbollah and Hamas 1/ … Unfortunately Western media misses the point by glorifying Soleimani— He was the common enemy for people in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria. His Involvement in crackdown against university students in late 1990s was another black mark against him. 2/

Tweets and video below have not been verified to represent truth in this breaking news topic …

▶ This CARDINAL NEWS article features video(s) available on Twitter. You may need to touch the play button twice, or touch and hold the play button and select ‘Open’ from a popup menu. ▶

CNN’s Fareed Zakaria says that Iran will respond in some way to the US airstrike at Baghdad International Airport that killed Qasem Soleimani, a key Iranian military commander, and issued a dire warning about the state of the relationship between the US and Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted that the US airstrike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Forces, is a “dangerous and foolish escalation.”

Soleimani — the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force unit — and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis — the deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) — were among those killed in the attack early Friday morning local time, according to a statement from the PMF, which said the pair “were martyred by an American strike.”

The United States Embassy in Baghdad is about 15 miles east of the Baghdad International Airport.

The Pentagon said Thursday that the U.S. military has killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, at the direction of President Donald Trump.