U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shared footage showing Iraqis celebrating the death of Iran’s top military general, Qassim Soleimani (also known as Qassem Soleimani).
Soleimani, Iran’s top general and the architect of Tehran’s proxy wars in the Middle East, was killed by a U.S. airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport early Friday morning local time, Iraqi TV and three Iraqi officials confirmed.
Pompeo’s post shows footage of people running through the streets, cheering as they carry the national flag of Iraq after Soleimani’s death. The tweet, which is flooded by ensuing comments that appear to also celebrate the death of Soleimani, reads: “Iraqis—Iraqis—dancing in the street for freedom; thankful that General Soleimani is no more.”
Soleimani, 62, is considered the architect behind Iran’s elite Quds Force—an elite unit within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) that is tasked with Iran’s extra-territorial military operations—including activities to expand Iranian influence in Syria and rocket attacks on Israel.
Months-Long Protests in Iraq
Widespread protests in Iraq have been happening since October and have seen thousands of local Iraqis taking to the streets in Baghdad. The protesters accused the government of being corrupt and decried the Iranian regime’s growing influence in Iraqi state affairs through the militia groups. The mass uprisings have left more than 450 people dead, the vast majority being protesters—killed by security forces using tear gas and live ammunition.
Trump Ordered Attacks
A senior Iraqi security official told The Associated Press that the airstrike that killed Soleimani took place near a cargo area near Baghdad International Airport after he left his plane and joined al-Muhandis and others in a car. The official added that the plane had arrived from either Lebanon or Syria.AP reported that two officials from the PMF said Suleimani’s body was torn to pieces in the attack and al-Muhandis’s body was not found. A senior politician told the AP that Suleimani’s body was identified by the ring he wore.
According to the United States, Soleimani was responsible for orchestrating attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the past several months, which included the attack at the Kirkuk military base in northern Iraq on Dec. 27 that killed an American and wounded several American and Iraqi troops.
Pompeo pointed out in an earlier tweet that al-Muhandis was spotted outside the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad amid the attacks. Al-Muhandis’s role in the attacks was unclear.
Al-Muhandis was also a former leader of the Iranian-backed Kataib Hizbollah (Kata’ib Hezbollah, KH) terror organization that’s part of the PMF. He has a long history of terrorist and subversive activities. In 1983, he led terrorist attacks against the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait, and his men have since been accused of extrajudicial killings in western Iraq.
U.S. officials have suggested they were prepared to engage in further retaliatory attacks in Iraq.
“To our partners and allies: we must stand together against the malign and destabilizing actions of Iran. The 81 nations and member organizations of the Defeat ISIS Coalition are in Iraq and Syria, and cooperating around the globe to defeat ISIS ... Unlike the Iranians who continue to meddle in Iraq’s internal affairs and seek to use corruption to further Tehran’s malign influence, the United States and our allies are committed to an independent, stable, secure, and sovereign democratic Iraq that addresses the aspirations and needs of the Iraqi people, who we see protesting for these very things and objecting to Iran’s malign influence.
“We call on our friends and allies to continue to work together to reduce Iran’s destabilizing influence so Iraq is governed by Iraqis without this interference in its internal affairs,” Esper said.
