U.S. KILLS TOP IRAN GENERAL
RETALIATION FEARED AFTER DRONE STRIKE AT BAGHDAD AIRPORT
A politically powerful Iranian general died at Baghdad’s international airport Thursday in a drone strike directly ordered by President Trump, U.S. officials confirmed.
“The strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans,” the Pentagon said of its attack against Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force.
Soleimani was responsible for attacks on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad over the past several days, the Pentagon’s statement said.
He was killed shortly after he arrived at the Iraqi airport on a plane from either Lebanon or Syria, sources told The Associated Press.
Soleimani was hit near the airport’s cargo area as he left his plane to be greeted by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.
Al-Muhandis also died in the attack, which killed seven people in all, news reports said. Little was left of al-Muhandis’ and Suleimani’s bodies, the AP reported, citing two officials from the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces.
Suleimani was torn to pieces in the attack — he was identified by the ring he wore, said the sources. Al-Muhandis’ body was not found, the report said.
Iranian state television reported that Soleimani was “martyred” in the attack, which it incorrectly said came from U.S. helicopters.
Though the Pentagon’s unsigned statement said the attack came “at the direction of the President,” President Trump — vacationing at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. — offered no immediate comment other than a tweeted picture of an American flag.
“Harsh retaliation is waiting” for the U.S., said Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a statement on Iranian state TV.
The attack marks an escalation of the Trump administration’s tough policy against Iran, which it sees as poised against the Saudis, the Israelis and western countries for influence in the Middle East.
That view was echoed by pro-Trump American politicians, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
“I appreciate President@ real Donald Trump’ s bold action against Iranian aggression,” Graham tweeted. “To the Iranian government: if you want more, you will get more.”
“Soleimani was one of the most ruthless and vicious members of the Ayatollah’s regime. He had American blood on his hands,” Graham added in another tweet.
Democratic politicians agreed with Graham’s assessment of Soleimani’s ruthlessness and viciousness — but cautioned that by effectively assassinating him, the Trump administration may have crossed a line.
“One reason we don’t generally assassinate foreign political officials is the belief that such action will get more, not less, Americans killed,” tweeted Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “That should be our real, pressing and grave worry tonight .”
“The world is a better place with Soleimani dead, no doubt about it,” said William Wechsler, a former deputy assistant of defense for special and antiterrorist operations in the Middle East.
“But this was done with an Iranian government in flux and a situation that was already tense that you’re multiplying by 10,” Wechsler told the Daily News.
“It will rightly be seen as a massive escalation. What was largely a proxy war, now you’ve turned into an overt, country on-country war. That’ s how Iran will see it and they will respond violently. There’s absolutely no doubt about that.”
Wechsler, who worked in the Obama and Clinton administrations, feared for the worst.
“We should expect attacks to take place across the region and elsewhere around the globe where they have active cells,” he said. “Iran has had actions inside the United States. It has had cells inside the U.S. and has in the past done terrorist actions inside the United States. That should absolutely be a concern as well.”