Iran general Qassem Suleimani killed in Baghdad drone strike
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
This guy was directly responsible for hundreds (maybe over 1,000) U.S. Soldiers killed in Iraq by shaped charge IEDs manufactured by Iran and its Iraqi proxies. He also orchestrated clandestine raids and kidnappings, like the one that happened in Karbala in 2007. [0]
He was also responsible for the deaths of untold numbers of civilians in Iraq and Syria at the hands of Shia death squads and Shia militias/paramilitary forces. These are people who kidnapped innocent Sunni civilians off the streets and drilled holes through their skulls to kill them. (Sorry for the graphic description there, but this was ugly war)
He was in charge of the Quds Force, which is like the American CIA and Special Forces Command combined. But, he’s far more important than his Major General (2-star) rank implies. He’s probably the second-most powerful person in Iran. Equivalent in strength to a Vice President, but much more behind the scenes. This is huge. Imagine if David Petraeus secretly ran everything that the US did externally and then some nation killed him.
More context here: https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1212913366492016640
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karbala_provincial_headquarter...
I can only hope for the best outcome being something like Iraq asking us to leave, and then largely falling into the fold of Iran. And hopefully that not being opposed by the US (unlikely) and it being all the victory Iran needs. Maybe something like that.
The alternative at a minimum is going to be many more lives lost and billions spent. At the other end of the spectrum tens of thousands of US lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Iranian lives, and trillions more in US dollars thrown on the fire.
Nobody actually wants war.
Go study up on the tanker wars and what Iran has done to the world economy in the past.
We’ve been in the gulf for decades, doing what our Navy does best - keeping peace.
You think the US would leave Iraq to Iran ?
Iraq is essentially a buffer for SA / Israel
Looting Iraq?
Coordinating with the local PMF forces [0] which just a bit earlier the US hit [1] in retaliation for the killed US contractor.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Mobilization_Forces
Once he’s dead he’ll simply be replaced with the next general in line, and the war will continue.
My context is that this is no secret from the countries leadership, just merely not official acknowledged like CIA actions.
Do you think the next general in line shows up at Baghdad international too?
He didn’t act based on his nations policy he set it.
The primary mandate of the Commander of the Quds Force is to export the Iranian revolution.
He isn’t a military general in any traditional manner, he sets up and commands militias around the Middle East.
It's not separate, it's an official branch of the Iranian Armed Forces [0]. You are similarly off-beat with pretty much all of your other statements.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Revolutionary_Guard_Co...
The IRGC is completely separate from the Iranian Military.
It is not bound to by the Iranian constitution, it is not bound to protect Iran but rather to protect the Islamic Republic, which is a completely separate entity.
The IRGC do not swear to protect the people of Iran but rather the ayatollahs.
They also do not share the same command structure exactly, the Iranian Army chief of staff is Abdolrahim Mousavi not Khamenei.
The Quds Force is also unique within the IRGC they do not report through the IRGC chain of command, hence Hossein Salami has no authority over Quds, but rather they report directly to Khamenei.
I'm relying on publicly available information, if you have better information it would be common courtesy to share it, instead of merely proclaiming Wikipedia is wrong.
> The IRGC do not swear to protect the people of Iran but rather the ayatollahs.
According to that logic, not even Iranian law enforcement is there to protect the people, because that's also structured under the Military Office of the Supreme leader.
> The Quds Force is also unique within the IRGC they do not report through the IRGC chain of command, hence Hossein Salami has no authority over Quds, but rather they report directly to Khamenei.
On what do you base this interpretation? It's completely contrary to the structure of the Iranian armed forces described on Wikipedia [0].
Not to mention that you in your original comment, you called him the Commander of the Quds Force, and now you say he has no authority over them.
If you have a better source then share it, but just declaring "You shouldn't rely on Wikipedia", while offering nothing except your own words, is not exactly constructive to the discussion.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Forces_of_the_Islamic_Re...
It is not a trend that bodes well for humanity in the future.
its basically the same thing. just an upscale in range, and really safe distance is safe distance... doesn't really change the situation when you add more 00's to the distance.
If we absolutely need a presence why not have coalition embassies? A single office w/ 1 member from each coalition country, and equal soldiers from all countries and diplomatically making unilateral decisions as a group not based on any country's agenda.
The embassy protests (call it riots if you like) were a response to the US killing at least 25 of them [0], which was a response to them supposedly being responsible for the death of US contractor [1].
There were no casualties during the embassy protests, yet the consequence of that was the US killing QS, and other PMU leadership, near Baghdad airport.
Now some people are peddling stories about how those two were supposedly not connected at all, and the US allegedly had intelligence how QS was planning to attack US Americans all over the world, which comes across as a bit of FUD to distract from the reality that the US just assassinated the general of another nation.
[0] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50951742
[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/27/politics/iraq-rocket-atta...
its basically the same thing. just an upscale in precision, and really safe distance is safe distance... doesn't really change the situation when you add more dangerous technology to the mix.
I think I agree.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/July_12,_2007_Baghdad_airstri...
Amusingly, the video starts with Wikileaks decrypted the video, but all drone feeds are unencrypted.
Drone traffic is now predominantly encrypted it’s not the early 2000’s anymore when you could tune into drone feeds with a satellite dish and $30 worth of software.
I think it is from a drone.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007,_Baghdad_airstri...
Also the turn radius of a helicopter is what ever the pilot wants it too be.
For CAS you wouldn’t turn on a dime you’ll take slow wide turns to allow the gunner to maintain their engagement and for you to have better situational awareness you aren’t evading incoming fire here.
This isn’t a drone you do get such angels form fixed wing drone footage, not to mention that drones don’t come with auto cannons...
Too bad the pilot was flying past a building, blocking view of the civilians carrying indistinct objects. Maybe the pilot didn't know what he was doing. I suppose I will be downvoted for my views, but I abhor dishonesty.
There was an inquiry into this, yeah mistakes were made and quite a few lessons had to be learned but this wasn’t a joy ride.
Imagine a drone the size of a fly landing on a President or someone high up in a country and 'stinging' them with a poison then flying back home? Even if it was caught/destroyed it wouldn't always be traceable if using vpn's and pre-programmed flight patterns and ai.
There's been nothing like this ever. It's scary and kind of fascinating in a JAmes Bond kind of way, but still mostly scary. If the tech is ever open sourced or democratized it could be used to attack anyone you don't agree with or who's wronged you, etc... basically a super tiny hitman that isn't as stupid/error prone as a real hitman.
This was a real decaptitation strike. US killed a major mastermind, organizer, and an icon to some. It's akin to killing Al-Baghdadi or Hannibal at the peak of their successes. It will be interesting to see how that will end up working out.