By Walid & Theodore Shoebat
A very recent report has revealed that the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Qassem Suleimani, was amongst those killed by the air strike on the Baghdad air port. According to the Jerusalem Post:
Iraqi paramilitary groups report that IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani was among those killed in an air strike on their vehicles inside Baghdad International Airport, militia sources reported on early Friday, after Iraq’s Security Media Cell announced that three katyusha rockets had targeted Baghdad Airport.
The attack that reportedly killed Soleimani and the Popular Mobilization Forces leaders is now being said to have been done by US attack helicopters. It has also been confirmed that the air strikes were done by the US by Joyce Karam:
We are awaiting Pentagon Statement, timeline:
• Fri.: Attack on US base in Kirkuk kills American contractor
• Sun.: US Airstrikes on Iraqi militia in Syria and Iraq
• Tue.: Pro Iran militia protest/attack at US embassy in Iraq
• Thu. : US assassinates Suleimani & Muhandis— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) January 3, 2020
Trump is likely going to use this story to boost up his image against Biden against whom he is currently campaigning for the 2020 election. It looks like the Trump campaign is going to be using this situation as a way to make it look like Biden was in cahoots with the enemy, similar to how Reagan’s campaign wanted to use Carter’s apparently inefficient handling of the Tehran hostage crises in 1979 as a way to make Reagan appear strong. This comparison is not far-fetched. The attackers of the US embassy in Iraq deliberately wanted to emulate the Tehran hostage scenario, according sources who spoke with Alhurra. The plotters were planning on “working in the same scenario of the American embassy in Iran in 1979,” according to the sources. It would not be surprising at all that this situation was allowed by the Americans to happen in order to bolster Trump’s image against Biden, just like the US allowed for the Tehran hostage crises to take place as a way to boost Reagan and ruin Carter’s reputation (shoebat.com wrote extensively on this).
It is also noteworthy to add that Iran’s interest in causing chaos in Iraq is happening in the midst of Turkey planning on sending ground and naval forces into Libya. Both Turkey and Iran want to invade Iraq and it appears that the two are colluding as a pact to leverage their positions as regional powers as a way to sink geopolitical claws into Iraq. A leaked video shows Turkish F-16s into Libya:
Turkey is planning sending AWACS into Libya as well.
The others who were killed in the Baghdad air strikes were part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iran backed Shiite militia allied to Hezbollah. Sources close to a security official and a senior leader of the Popular Mobilization Forces, gave out the names of the people who orchestrated and carried out the attack against the American embassy in Baghdad. The attackers on the embassy had ties to the Iraqi government. The sources told Al-Hurra that “the plan to attack the embassy … was laid down by figures belonging to the armed militias and in cooperation with an Iraqi government security commander with authority in the Green Zone.”
The sources added that “Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis”, whose real name is Jamal Jaafar Al-Ibrahim, met, on the night of December 30-31, with the Secretary-General of Hezbollah-designated terrorist groups, known as Abu Hussein Al-Hamidawi. In addition to al-Hamidawi, the meeting was attended by Ahmed Muhsin Faraj al-Hamidawi, a former Iraqi army officer, alongside Karim Muhsin al-Zirjawi, nicknamed “al-Khal”, according to the same sources.
The sources confirmed that the secret meeting, which was held in a private house in the Al-Jadiriya area near the crowd security department, was attended by an officer in the Iranian Quds Force, Hajj Hamid, a nominal name for the Iranian general. It was in this secret meeting where the Baghdad embassy attack was planned out.
During the meeting, Al-Hamidawi asked Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis “to grant leave and discharge to 3,500 members of the Hashd Brigades’ Popular Mobilization Brigade within the 45th and 46th Brigades and the National Defense Brigades for one month.” It was these 3500 militia fighters who attacked the embassy. According to the sources, the purpose of the leave is to “devote itself to a special duty, which is to participate in demonstrations and sit-in in front of the American embassy and attack it,” a move that was approved by Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis and informed by Faleh Al-Fayyad, the head of the Popular Mobilization Authority, who praised the approval and expressed no objection.
The plot, drawn up by the commander of the Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, required that Qais al-Khazali and Hadi al-Amiri to mobilize an attack on the embassy. What gives this story another dimension for our observation is that Hadi al-Amiri had ties to Obama and Biden, according to a Fox News report:
An Iran-linked Iraqi official who was spotted in the crowd of angry militia supporters and protesters Tuesday as some of them stormed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad visited the Obama White House back in 2011.
Hadi Al-Amiri‘s presence at the scene of the embassy attack — where crowds chanted “Down, Down USA!” following U.S. airstrikes that killed fighters of an Iranian-backed militia — underscores how the figure once seen as a potential partner is now viewed by the U.S. government as a dangerous Iran proxy.
…
The Washington Post reported Amiri’s presence at the protests outside the embassy, saying he was “in attendance.” The Associated Press also reported that Amiri was among the “commanders of militia factions loyal to Iran” who “joined the protesters outside the embassy in a strikingly bold move.”
Amiri leads the Badr Corps, one of the largest pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, and is part of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which is the larger network of Shiite militias.
Yet in 2011, Amiri accompanied former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and several other top Baghdad advisers on a high-profile visit to the Obama White House timed with the official wind-down of U.S. military involvement in Iraq.
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David Bossie, president of Citizens United and a former 2016 Trump campaign official, tweeted Thursday that it appears former Vice President Joe Biden also was part of the 2011 session. He posted State Department records listing Biden – along with Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – as among the participants meeting with the Iraqi delegation.
The plan also stated, according to the sources, that they storm right inside the Green Zone to attack the American embassy, to join them in “other groups, including the National Security Adviser, head of the Popular Mobilization Committee, Faleh al-Fayyad, and his deputy Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis …”.
The crowd of militias that took part in the attack on the embassy was not only Islamic ones; there was even a Christian militia involved as well. Ryan al-Chaldani, an official of “the Babylon Christian militia” was involved in the attack. The attackers needed to get passed the gates of the embassy. The person who was suppose to open these gates was a “Military Adviser to the Prime Minister, Lieutenant General Abu Muntazer al-Husseini,” alongside a senior security officer in the Iraqi government,” according to sources confirmed. But the sources refused the reveal the name of this security officer and only stated that he had authority in the Green Zone.
The plan was to storm the embassy, set fires and murder personal inside. Soleimani called for “the burning and killing of those at the embassy” according to the sources.