Drones that killed Qassem Soleimani waited for his plane to land in Baghdad
Qassem Soleimani boarded a civilian flight. Two drones were ready and waiting for him to land.
New details have been published regarding the US elimination of Qassem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps ( IRGC ).
Soleiman boarded a Cham Wings Airlines flight from Damascus, Syria. Meanwhile, two General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drones controlled by officials in Nevada left Qatar, a few hundred kilometers from Baghdad. A different report said the drones were sent from Kuwait.
After Soleimani’s plane landed in Baghdad, he disembarked in a procession. On the road near the airport, three missiles were fired at his vehicle, and Soleimani was killed on the spot, together with nine others.
A report by our journalist said that because of the elimination and the possible connection to Qatar, the Qatari Foreign Minister was called Saturday to Tehran to explain things, and he will meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani himself. The conversation is expected to include questions on how the drones were launched from Qatari territory.
On Friday evening, Rouhani visited Soleimani’s family, offering condolences to his daughter and threatening revenge.
During the visit, Soleimani’s daughter asked, “Who will avenge my father’s death?” and was told, “Don’t worry, we will all take care of it.”
While Trump continued to revel in his decision, tweeting on Saturday night that if Iran retaliated the US had identified 52 Iranian sites that would be targeted “very fast and very hard”, there were also fears in Europe and Britain that potential consequences for an already volatile global order had not been considered. The former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers described Suleimani’s assassination as an “act of war”.
