Iran fired missiles at US military in Iraq: Revenge of Sulaimani’s death

Faizan Musanna
7 min readJan 8, 2020

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The US Defense Ministry Pentagon says that there have been more than a dozen missile attacks on at least two US military bases in Iraq. Read More

Iran’s state media says that the attacks were to avenge the assassination of General Qasim Suleimani, who was killed in a drone attack in Baghdad on the orders of US President Donald Trump.

The US President has said in a tweet that everything is fine and he will issue a statement on Wednesday.

Trump said in this tweet, “All is well, Iran has attacked two military bases in Iraq. Casualties and losses are being reviewed. All is well so far. We have the world’s most powerful army. I will issue a statement in the morning. “ Read More

Jawad Zarif tweeted, “Iran has targeted such targets in self-defence under Article-51 of the UN Charter were attacks against our civilians and senior officers in a cowardly manner. We do not want to escalate the fight, but we will protect ourselves from attacks. “

The Pentagon has said that there have been attacks on two bases in the city of Irbil and al-Assad in Iraq where their soldiers were staying.

It is not yet clear whether any casualties have occurred in the attack.

US President’s Office White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement, “We have received news of an attack on US bases in Iraq. The president has been briefed about this, we are monitoring the situation and the national security team Are consulting with. “

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has said that this attack has been carried out on Friday to answer the death of General Suleimani.

In a statement issued on Iran’s state-run news agency Irna, the Revolutionary Guard said, “We want to warn all the American comrades who have allowed their terrorist forces to use their land, from any place where Action against Iran, it will be targeted. “

According to Al-Mayadin TV, the attacks occurred just hours after General Sulaimani was buried. Missiles were fired at Al-Assad first, followed by attacks at Irbil.

US President Donald Trump has warned Iran that the US is ‘targeting’ 52 Iranian locations and that if Iran attacks an American citizen or property, it is ‘very swiftly and very strongly’. Will attack

President Trump’s statement came after the assassination of Iran’s top commander Qasim Suleimani. On Friday, Commander Sulemani was killed in an American airstrike.

Following the incident, Iran has said that it will avenge it at the right time and place. Trump tweeted that after the death of the general “Iran is speaking with great courage to target American assets.”

Will the death of General Qasim Suleimani cause earthquake in the Middle East?

He said that the US has identified 52 Iranian sites that are “very important and important to Iran and its culture. They are on target if Iran attacks the US, it will be attacked very quickly and firmly.”

Trump has said, “America does not want any more threats.”

The US President said that the 52 targets represent 52 Americans who were held in Iran for one year in 1979.

General Qasim Sulemani’s death How big a turning point in the Middle East?

General Qasim Sulemani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force, has died in an American air strike. How important Sulaimani was to Iran can be gauged from the fact that soon after the news of his death came, US President Donald Trump tweeted a picture of the US national flag.

While declaring three-day mourning in Iran, the country’s highest religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that ‘severe revenge is awaited from the perpetrators of this attack’.

A spokesman for the Iranian government has said that after a few hours the country’s top security agencies will hold a meeting regarding this criminal attack.

At the same time, Iran’s Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif, while calling it ‘international terrorism’, has warned the US to be ready to bear its brunt.

At the same time, after the death of Sulemani, the US Ministry of Defense said that, “General Suleimani and his Quds Force are responsible for the death of hundreds of Americans and members of coalition partners and injuring thousands of others.”

In the midst of all this, after the new earthquake in the Middle East, global oil prices have also increased by four per cent.

Why General Sulaimani was on the target of America?

International politics has been stirred up after the death of a military commander of Iran, General Qasim Suleimani, in the US attack, everyone is worried that this issue should not be taken seriously.

His death was such a big thing for America that President Trump himself tweeted that only the picture of the US national flag — that in a way President Trump was presenting America’s national pride.

And something similar was also in Iran where President Hassan Ruhani issued a statement that Iran and other countries will take revenge.

In such a situation, the first question that arises is, what was the matter in General Qasim Sulemani that America surrounded them in a way? What did General Sulaimani do? Who was this Iranian general?

General Qasim Sulemani’s stature was very large in Iran’s power structure. After Iran’s most powerful leader — the supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — if anyone was considered the second most powerful person in Iran, they were — General Qasim Suleimani.

General Sulaimani was the head of a troop named Quds Force. This troop is in a way similar to the Iranian army abroad, which opposes anyone along with others according to Iranian interests in different countries.

It can also be said that in Iran there is a foreign minister to say, but the real foreign minister plays the role of the Quds Force.

It is believed that General Suleimani had helped the Syrian President to suppress it in the years when the bugle of revolt against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria was played out.

In this way, when the Islamic State started becoming stronger in Iraq, then it also played an important role in defeating it. He strengthened the hands of pro-Iran paramilitary forces in Iraq.

General Sulemani continued to lead campaigns behind the scenes for a long time, but a few years ago he came out in the open and after that, he became so popular in Iran that articles were written on him, documentaries were made and even pop songs were made. Began

John Maguire, a former US intelligence agency CIA officer, told the American magazine New Yorker six years ago — General Suleimani is the most powerful campaigner in the Middle East.

Hailing from a poor family in Iran’s southwestern province of Kirman, Sulemani started caring for his family at the age of 13. His studies were also not done properly.

In his spare time, he used to do weightlifting and listen to Khamenei.

Sulaimani was close to Iran’s supreme religious leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

According to Foreign Policy magazine, Sulemani joined the Iranian army in 1979 and was involved in a struggle in West Azerbaijan after just six weeks of training.

He emerged as a national hero during the Iran-Iraq War because of his leadership on the borders of Iraq. It is said that in view of this, Iran’s highest religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini came very close.

Suleimani worked to unite the Kurdish fighters and Shia militias against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as Syria’s Bashar al-Assad government, also had the support of Sulaimani.

On October 25, 2007, the US declared the Quds Force as a terrorist organization and completely banned any American transaction with this organization.

Sulemani’s influence in politics increased during the tenures of Prime Ministers Ibrahim al-Jafari and Nouri al-Maliki since the formation of Iraq’s new government in 2005 following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s empire.

At the same time, the Shia-backed Badr faction was made part of the government. The Badr Organization is called Iran’s oldest proxy force in Iraq.

When civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Sulemani asked his Iraqi proxy force to help the Assad government, while the US wanted to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s government.

US sanctions on Iran and pressure from Saudi Arabia, UAE and Israel are not hidden from anyone.

And in the midst of so many international pressures, General Qasim Sulemani’s role was very important in enhancing the influence of his country or rather, it was the reason that he was caught in the eyes of the trio of America, Saudi Arabia and Israel. The US had even declared him a terrorist.

On 23 October 2018, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain declared Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist and its Quds Force chief Qasim Sulaimani as a terrorist. And since then General Sulaimani was the target of America.

On January 3, when his two-car convoy was targeted by a drone at the Baghdad airport, Qatib Hezbollah’s leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was among those he was travelling with.

Since 2009, the US has declared Qatib Hezbollah a terrorist organization. He also named its commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis as a global terrorist. Muhandis was also killed in this attack along with General Suleimani.

Originally published at https://www.mubahisa.in.

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