Iran has out-foxed America again & backed “fake president” Trump into a corner…

from The Washington Post…

Iran vows revenge after U.S. drone strike kills elite force commander

The death of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani could plunge the region into a new cycle of violence.

By LOUISA LOVELUCK and LIZ SLY | 4:06AM EST — Friday, January 03, 2020

Burning debris are seen on a road near Baghdad International Airport, which according to Iraqi paramilitary groups were caused by three rockets
hitting the airport in Iraq, on January 3, 2020, in this image obtained via social media. — Photograph: Iraqi Security Media Cell/via Reuters.

BEIRUT — Iran on Friday vowed “severe revenge” in response to the U.S. airstrike which killed Tehran's most powerful military commander, Qasem Soleimani, and dramatically sharpened tensions across the Middle East.

Soleimani was a towering figure in Iran's power projection across the region, with close links to a network of paramilitary groups that stretches from Syria to Yemen. His death in the smoldering wreckage of a two-car convoy in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, left U.S. outposts and personnel bracing for retaliatory attacks.

“With his departure and with God's power, his work and path will not cease and severe revenge awaits those criminals who have tainted their filthy hands with his blood and the blood of the other martyrs of last night's incident,” Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a statement.

The country's defense minister, Amir Hatami, said that the night time strike by the “arrogant U.S.” would be met with a “crushing” response.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Friday urged American citizens to leave Iraq immediately, citing heightened tensions, and said in a statement that it was suspending public consular activities.

The U.S. attack appeared intended to cripple a force that has been the vanguard of Iran's decades-long effort to shape the region in its favor. Soleimani joined Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a young man, and took control of the Quds Force, its external wing, in the late 1990s.

Under his command, the force expanded its support for armed groups across the region, including in Iraq, where U.S. officials blamed Iran-backed militias for killing at least 600 American troops following the 2003 U.S. invasion.

LEFT: Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a commander in the Popular Mobilization Forces. | RIGHT: Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander Qasem Soleimani.

In recent years Soleimani was regularly seen making visits to affiliated militias in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere, demonstrating not just his military influence but significant diplomatic clout. Also killed in the attack was Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, one of Iraq's most influential militia commanders who is better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said the Pentagon had taken “decisive defensive action” against Soleimani.

“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” Esper said in a statement. “This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans.”

The basis for that statement remained unclear, although it followed comments by the defense secretary earlier in the day suggesting that Iran and its proxies may be preparing renewed strikes on U.S. personnel in Iraq.

A video circulated by Shiite militia groups showed, accompanied by the sound of wailing, the crumpled wreckage of the vehicle in which Soleimani purportedly was traveling. A photograph claimed to show his bloodied, ash-covered hand wearing the same blood-red ring seen in earlier photos of him alive.

A U.S. official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the record, said the attack was conducted by a U.S. drone and struck a two-car convoy carrying Soleimani and others on an access road near Baghdad International Airport. At least half a dozen people were believed to have been killed.

In a statement, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi condemned the U.S. “assassination,” adding that the killing of the Iraqi militia leader was an act of aggression against Iraq and a breach of the conditions under which American forces operate in the country.

A mock U.S. flag is laid on the ground for cars to drive on in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on January 3, 2020, following news of the killing of Iranian
Revolutionary Guard top commander Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. strike on his convoy at Baghdad International Airport.
— Photograph: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the killing was reckless and would fuel tension in the region and offered condolences to its ally, Iran. “Soleimani loyally served the cause of defending the national interests of Iran. We offer our sincere condolences to the Iranian people,” the ministry said.

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of Russia's parliament, told the state-run RIA Novosti News Agency that Soleimani's targeting is “the worst-case scenario” and predicted that Iranian retribution “will not take long.”

“I'll be happy to be wrong because wars are easy to start, but very hard to end,” Kosachev said.

Senior officials with the Popular Mobilization Forces, as the Iraqi militia groups are known, lamented the deaths in messages circulating on WhatsApp. “May God reward you for the loss of the brave leaders, Hajj Soleimani and Hajj Muhandis. May God accept them as martyrs in his vast mercy,” wrote Ahmed al-Assadi, the chief spokesman of the Popular Mobilization Forces, many of which are seen as being funded and directed by Iran.

Despite a long period of increasing tension between Iran and the Trump administration, which has vowed a tougher stance on Tehran's support for proxy groups, the attack against an incomparable figure in Iran's security establishment came as a surprise to many analysts, in part because it was seen as likely to ignite a significant Iranian response.

The attack, which Esper said was authorized by President Trump, raises fresh questions about the president's approach to the Middle East. While Trump has employed bellicose rhetoric and authorized several strikes against the Syrian government, an ally of Tehran, he has repeatedly voiced his desire to get the United States out of costly wars in the Middle East.

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• Robyn Dixon and Isabelle Khurshudyan in Moscow contributed to this report.

• Louisa Loveluck is The Washington Post's Baghdad bureau chief. She joined The Post as the 2016 Laurence Stern Fellow, and later covered the war in Syria from her base in Beirut. Before that, she was The Daily Telegraph's Cairo correspondent, reporting on the 2013 military coup and deadly crackdown that followed. She graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2011, where she read Social and Political Sciences and earned a B.A.

• Liz Sly is The Washington Post's Beirut bureau chief, responsible for coverage of Syria, Lebanon and the wider Middle East. She joined The Post in 2010 as Baghdad bureau chief, then in 2011 moved to Beirut to focus on Syria and the region. Before that, she covered Iraq for the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. She has spent nearly three decades as a foreign correspondent, based in the Middle East, Africa, China, South Asia and Europe. She began her career with Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper in Beirut in the 1980s. She graduated from Cambridge University with a B.A. and a M.A. in history.

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