The US has killed a high profile Iranian military leader in a missile strike near the Baghdad airport.
The White House said Donald Trump ordered an air strike that killed powerful Iranian general Qassem Suleimani in Baghdad in the early hours of Friday, in a dramatic escalation of an already bloody struggle between Washington and Tehran for influence across the region.
Suleimani, who ran Iranian military operations in Iraq and Syria, was targeted while being driven from Baghdad airport by local allies from the Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU). The deputy head of the PMU, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandes, a close Suleimani associate, was also killed in the attack.
…Iran confirmed Suleimani’s death, saying the US would be responsible for the consequences.
“The US’ act of international terrorism, targeting & assassinating General Soleimani—THE most effective force fighting Daesh (ISIS), Al Nusrah, Al Qaeda et al—is extremely dangerous & a foolish escalation,” the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Twitter. “The US bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism.”
This is a major, major provocation by Trump. I cannot tell what this will lead to but it is not going to be good.
The Orange Toddler-Tyrant has been itching to start a war somewhere just so he can use it for his reelection campaign. He is going to cause the death of many US military members.
At first glance, I thought this was going to be a story of foolish risk-taking resulting in ‘collateral damage’. But he was deliberately targeted. Trump has begun war with Iran.
Trump was probably playing golf.
Impeach me, will they?
I’ll start a war to distract the public.
Hairball probably didn’t hatch this plan on his own, someone wants a few more billions of military spending.
“This is a major, major provocation by Trump”
And how would you characterise the announcement on Ali Khamenei’s website a couple of days before, where he directly addressed Trump and said: “There’s not a damn thing you can do” [about the attack by an Iran backed group on the US embassy in Baghdad].
Well, shit, it turned out there WAS a damn thing the commander in chief of the world’s biggest armed forces could do after all. Who is surprised, and why?
Arguably, “clever”. You want to make a blowhard do something dumb? Tell him he can’t. He’ll be so busy proving you wrong that he never stops to think if it’s actually a good idea.
Maybe somebody could tell Trump not to stare into the sun again. It almost worked last time.
OK, the announcement was clever. How about the attack on the embassy to which it referred? Also clever? What’s the game plan here?
I fear the next step might be 9/11-sized attacks on Israel, USA, and other countries.
I am a bit curious. What exactly was Iran’s top general doing in Baghdad? And this during (or right after) the embassy overrun?
#10 ahcuah, the Quds Force is responsible for extraterritorial operations, e.g. in Iraq:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quds_Force
I mean, I don’t know what he was doing in Baghdad at that time. But it was probably quite normal for him to be there.
I guess a bit over 100 years go by and some people get stupid and forgetful. When I learned of these events this morning my first thought was to message a history buff friend and hope this has less repercussions than the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.
But really, who cares about history? This ought to chase impeachment out of the headlines on Fox News at least so totally worth it, right?
Obviously, I don’t know and, admittedly, it does rather depend on exactly what the Iranians are planning for. However, I feel confident saying that the Iranians planned more than Trump did.
The more I think about this, the more possibilities come to mind. The only thing I’m really sure about is that it’s gonna be a shit show. Of course, that’s usually a safe bet in these situations.
Struggling to keep track of all this. The timeline appears to be something like the following:
-- On Friday Dec 27, rockets were fired at an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk killing one US contractor (4 others slightly wounded).
-- US blames (Iran-backed) Kata’ib Hezbollah. They deny it. Nevertheless, on Sunday Dec 29, US attacks 5 Kata’ib Hezbollah locations in Iraq and Syria, firing rockets that kill at least 25 fighters and wound at least 55.
-- In retaliation, on Tuesday Dec 31, angry Shia protesters storm the US embassy compound in Baghdad, causing damage but no injuries. They then withdraw to protest outside the embassy after a man with a loudspeaker urges them to do so, stating “the message was delivered.”
-- US blames Iran for co-ordinating this attack. On Friday Jan 3, US drones assassinate general Qassem Soleimani and four members of the PMF, including deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
-- Trump tweets an American flag. Might as well have said “Ha, ha”.
Is this correct so far?
Ah… I seem to have written my last comment to coincide with your post https://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2020/01/03/the-fallout-from-the-killing-of-qassem-suleimani/. Could repost it there but wth.
file thirteen @#15,
That is the same timeline I have.