Quds Force Leader Qasem Soleimani’s Death Marks Huge Blow to Iranian Regime

“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans. The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.”

“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans. The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.”

The Pentagon said Soleimani had orchestrated attacks on U.S.-led coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months, including one on December 27 which killed an American contractor and wounded U.S. service members and Iraqi personnel.

The Pentagon also said Soleimani approved the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that took place earlier this week.

The group that carried out the December 27 attack, Kata’ib Hizballah, is the same group that pioneered the use of explosively formed penetrators that killed and maimed hundreds of U.S. service members during the Iraq War, according to Smyth.

Carafano argued that Soleimani’s death should be treated similarly to bin Laden’s. Trump designated the IRGC-Quds Force a foreign terrorist organization in April, essentially labeling Soleimani a terrorist leader.

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), led by Suleimani, was responsible for the deaths of more than 600 Americans in Iraq between 2003-2011, and countless more injured. He was a chief architect behind Iran’s continuing reign of terror in the region. This strike against one of the world’s most odious terrorists is no different than the mission which took out Osama bin Laden – it is, in fact, even more justifiable since he was in a foreign country directing terrorist attacks against Americans,” he said.

According to local reports, the U.S. airstrikes also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of the Badr Organization, one of Iraq’s most powerful Iranian-controlled Shia militia groups.

“It’s an incredible two-fer,” Smyth said. “This is another one of those old hands. These guys don’t grow on trees. It takes time.”

The U.S. airstrikes also reportedly killed the public relations chief for the umbrella group of Iran-controlled Shia militia in Iraq, the Popular Mobilization Forces, Mohammed Ridha Jabri, as well. Smyth said Jabri had some significance to the militia network as a spokesman, but his death would not be of the same significance as Soleimani or al-Muhandis.

As for what to expect next, Smyth said a response could come in many forms and in different places and perhaps not be even recognized as a response. But he pushed back against the notion that the U.S. started a war with Iran with the death of Soleimani.

“Iran has been at war with the United States since the Islamic Revolutionary regime took power in Tehran in 1979. To say that we are going to war or that this is yet another American escalation — I think we need to be a little more detailed,” he said.

He said over the past year, Kata’ib Hizballah, was launching rockets and mortars at Americans in Iraq and eventually killed one.

“Over the past couple of years we’ve had a number of issues in the Gulf, we’ve had a number of issues in different countries, we’ve had international terrorism issues, you name it, you can throw everything at the wall, and the Iranians have in some way been behind some of it. Even arm supplies to the Taliban … so this didn’t just appear in a vacuum because ‘we didn’t like the Iranians,’” he said.

Carafano said going forward, the Trump administration must keep its maximum pressure strategy in place.