Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iraq, January 3, 2020—Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guards Quds Force (IRGC-QF), was killed in a missile strike on Thursday. Soleimani was in a convoy of Iran-backed militia forces leaving the Baghdad International Airport when his vehicle was hit by the projectile.
Soleimani was the mastermind of Tehran’s foreign terrorist and intervention agendas, constantly traveling to Iraq and Syria, where the regime has thousands of troops and commanders. He directly reported to Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the regime. Soleimani was also responsible for numerous attacks against the members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Iraq. He was behind many attacks against American troops in Iraq.
Suleimani was on the U.S. terror and sanctions lists.
He had directed the recent attack against the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and a December rocket attack that killed an American civilian in Iraq.
“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” the U.S. Defense Department said in a statement following the attack. “General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more. He had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months – including the attack on December 27th – culminating in the death and wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel. General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week.”
The DoD also stressed that the strike was aimed at deterring future attack plans by the Iranian regime. “The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world,” the statement reads.
Along with Suleimani, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the commander of Kata’ib Hezbollah, a terrorist group backed by the Iranian regime, was killed. Kata’ib Hezbollah was responsible for a recent terror attack that resulted in the death of an American civilian in Iraq last week.
Al-Muhandis was also the deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU) or Hashd al-Shaabi, a coalition of Iran-backed militias that have been involved in many crimes against the Iraqi people in the past years.
In the past months, the people of Iraq have been protesting Iran’s influence in their country and the brutality of Iran-backed militias.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), described the elimination of Soleimani and al-Muhandis as an “irreparable blow to the clerical regime.”
Elimination of Qassem #Soleimani and head of Iraq’s suppressive Bassij force is irreparable blow to mullahs’ regime; Time to evict IRGC from the region #Iranhttps://t.co/V9Vl9NjMUT pic.twitter.com/Xpom5xZROl
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) 3 January 2020
Mrs. Rajavi described Suleimani as “one of the most vicious criminals of Iran’s history” who was “personally involved in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in the region and in driving millions of others from their homes.”
“With his elimination, the process of overthrowing the mullahs will be greatly expedited,” Mrs. Rajavi said.
Mrs. Rajavi emphasized that the time has come to evict the mullahs from the region, especially from Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, and expel the IRGC from these countries.
With the death of al-Muhandis, Mrs. Rajavi said, “the time has come for the victory of the Iraqi people’s uprising and the liberation of Iraq from the Iranian regime’s occupation.”
Iran-backed militias were deeply involved in the violent suppression of Iraqi protesters in the past few months. Following the death of al-Muhandis and Soleimani, the Iraqi people were seen celebrating in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square.
Iraqis — Iraqis — dancing in the street for freedom; thankful that General Soleimani is no more. pic.twitter.com/huFcae3ap4
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) 3 January 2020
