The killing of Qasem Soleimani
by Melanie Phillips:
It’s impossible to exaggerate the importance of the elimination of the Iranian al Quds commander Qasem Soleimani. He was killed by a US airstrike which targeted him at Baghdad airport, where he had been met by his close henchman Abu Mahdi al Muhandis and who was killed alongside him in a vehicle convoy with five others.
This was America’s response to Iran’s escalating aggression, including an attack on US forces at an Iraqi military base on December 27 that killed a US contractor and wounded several others, and after an Iranian-backed mob attacked the US embassy on December 29 scrawling “Soleimani is my leader” on the guardhouses.
That day, the US launched a series of five airstrikes in Iraq and Syria that killed 25 members of the Iranian-backed militia, Kataib Hezbollah. But taking out Soleimani moves all this onto a different level altogether.
Soleimani has been described by some outlets as a terrorist leader. This is vastly to underestimate his importance. The al Quds force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is part of Iran’s hugely powerful proxy army, and Soleimani was the regime’s key military strategist and military commander.
He launched countless military operations against US, Israel and others. He was responsible for hundreds of American deaths in Iraq. He was the invaluable architect of Iran’s territorial drive for regional incursion and hegemony.
Al Muhandis was also a key military player who was responsible for supporting the Iranian-backed militias, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, through which Iran has pushed for regional power.
How will the Iranian regime react to this devastating blow to their prowess and prestige?
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