The Pentagonâs announced on Thursday evening that at the direction of President Donald Trump the U.S. killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iranâs elite Quds Force, by a drone strike at Baghdadâs International Airport. Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, commander of the Iraqi paramilitary group, Popular Mobilization Forces, was also killed in that attack.
The Obama administration designated Soleimani a terrorist in 2011 and he was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury numerous times.
His death follows the attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday that was orchestrated by Soleimani and carried out by al-Mohandes.
Soleimani ran a proxy U.S.-Iran war in Iraq over the last decade that resulted in the deaths of over 600 American servicemen.
The Defense Department said that Soleimani âwas actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.â
Democrats are complaining about the strike. I too am concerned about what comes next with Iran, but I have to ask how many members of our military were we going to allow him to kill by proxy, how many embassies were we going to allow him to attack before we responded?
U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, R-Neb., statement about Soleimaniâs death was spot on.
âThis is very simple: General Soleimani is dead because he was an evil bastard who murdered Americans. The President made the brave and right call, and Americans should be proud of our servicemembers who got the job done. Tehran is on edge â the mullahs have already slaughtered at least a thousand innocent Iranians â and before they lash out further they should know that the U.S. military can bring any and all of these IRGC butchers to their knees,â he said in a released statement.
President Trump made the right call. Lets pray Iran received the message and backs off.