Trump Orders Strike Killing Top Iranian General Qassim Suleimani in Baghdad + World War 3 trending on Twitter (1 Viewer)

[potato]

Trump Orders Strike Killing Top Iranian General Qassim Suleimani in Baghdad

Suleimani was planning attacks on American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region, the Pentagon statement said.

The remains of a vehicle hit by missiles outside the Baghdad airport.Credit...Iraq Security Media Cell, via Twitter

BAGHDAD — President Trump ordered the killing of the powerful commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, in a drone strike on the Baghdad International Airport early Friday, American officials said.

General Suleimani’s death was confirmed by official Iranian media.

“General Suleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “General Suleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more.”

“This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans,” the statement added. “The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.”

The killing of General Suleimani was a major blow for Iran and a major escalation of President Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, which began with economic sanctions but has steadily moved into the military arena.

The strikes followed a warning on Thursday afternoon from Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, who said the United States military would pre-emptively strike Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria if there were signs the paramilitary groups were planning more attacks against American bases and personnel in the region.

“If we get word of attacks, we will take pre-emptive action as well to protect American forces, protect American lives,” Mr. Esper said. “The game has changed.”

In Iran, state television interrupted its programing to announce General Suleimani’s death.

The news anchor recited the Islamic prayer for the dead — “From God we came and to God we return” — beside a picture of General Suleimani.

American officials consider General Suleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers during the Iraq War and hostile Iranian activities throughout the Middle East.

“This is devastating for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, the regime and Khamenei’s regional ambitions,” said Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the hawkish Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank that supports a hard line against Iran, referring to the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

“For 23 years, he has been the equivalent of the J.S.O.C. commander, the C.I.A. director and Iran’s real foreign minister,” Mr. Dubowitz said, using an acronym for the United States Joint Special Operations Command. “He is irreplaceable and indispensable” to Iran’s military establishment.
The American drone strike hit two cars carrying Mr. Suleimani and several officials with Iranian-backed militias as they were leaving the airport.
American officials said that multiple missiles hit the convoy in a strike carried out by the Joint Special Operations Command.
The strike killed five people, including the pro-Iranian chief of an umbrella group for Iraqi militias, Iraqi television reported and militia officials confirmed. The militia chief, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, was a strongly pro-Iranian figure.
The public relations chief for the umbrella group, the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, Mohammed Ridha Jabri, was killed as well.
Two other people were killed in the strike, according to a general at the Baghdad joint command, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.

Read more here:

Trump Orders Strike Killing Top Iranian General Qassim Suleimani in Baghdad

Suleimani was planning attacks on American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region, the Pentagon statement said.

www.nytimes.com

 

[potato]

 

[Sourcekeeper]

This sounds bad, its near election season and this happens suddenly.

 

[Mayday]

This sounds bad, its near election season and this happens suddenly.

Your dp is my reaction.

 

[QueenB]

yay! time to disillusion another generation of young Americans with war and war crimes!

This sounds bad, its near election season and this happens suddenly.

I won't be surprised if it's another US president using the "you need me were at/going to war!" tactic to get reelected. Tbh I already felt like he had a good chance of getting reelected again and I think this will only help him more with his voters

 

[lexus]

I seriously hate this man

 

[Darkseid]

Why is this clown still president

 

[PrideInBaek]

Why is that man still the president???

 

[multifanboy]

what a mess, things like this make me nervous

 

[RandAlThor]

Guy is a designated terrorist and head of a an organization of designated terrorists. And was responsible for the planing of the embassy attack and he thought bagdad was a good place to visit. Obviously someones operational security was crap.
Dude has likely had a price on his head for 2 decades.

 

[quinby]

And I really don't like people already memeing about ww3. This isn't something to joke about.

 

[RandAlThor]

And I really don't like people already memeing about ww3. This isn't something to joke about.

Super unlikely this is a text book strike against a high level target of opportunity.

Iran is what 10k miles away and have yet to be able to effectively project force over even their neighbors. Just a few random attacks and state sponsored proxy fights. unless you count the Persian leaders but that was what 3 - 4 millennia ago.

A quick, measured, limited, hit that as far as has been reported Killed him (the guy the attackers spray painted lead them) the head of a Iran sponsored militia also on the target list and the pr director for said group. With about 2-3 drivers/ bodyguards.
About as perfect of a mission as can be asked for.

They had to use a really well placed intel resource to make this happen so cleanly and quick.

If the president had to sign off he had to be briefed and make a choice quickly. And they probably had to extract the resource.

This sent a bunch of overt messages.

 

[Wingfrost]

Things like this always terrify me...

 

[blueberries]

I don't think WW3 is in question as long as Russia and China don't get directly involved. In other hand the situation in Middle East might become more volatile.

And i have always found this mentality from USA pretty entitled and creepy: "The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.”

 

[dark_tranquility]

I am not a fan of anyone that provokes controversy and pot stirring. President or not.
This man is a household lunatic of a person (let it be known) Trump is not cool.

I even liked George Bush over this nutter.

 

[Darkseid]

Ok but how does an impeached President have the power to do this without Congressional oversight? Is this not an act or declaration of war? Regardless of if you view Suleimani as a terrorist or not, he was a high ranking, powerful individual with apparently a very high approval rate among the Iranian population. And he just got assassinated in a foreign country.

The fact that this happens just as elections draw close isn't surprising either.

Anytime something of this magnitude happens, the ramifications are felt worldwide. This will only lead to more mounting tension and hostility in the Middle East, and in the worst case could lead to another Iraq/Afghanistan. Bush claimed victory over Iraq long ago, but there are still forces fighting and people getting killed.

 

[Hajima]

Why do Americans love to start wars all the damn time???

 

[jasque]

The world can end all they want, but they should at least keep the oil price as it is

 

[HopeOnTheStreet]

I'm curious what are gonna be the reactions from the other NATO leaders like Merkel, Macron, Trudeau. Johnson is as much of a clown as Trump, he will support him. WW3 isn't gonna happen, Russia and China aren't gonna risk their asses over some guy who isn't really important to them. The guy wasn't innocent, thousands of people died because of him in Iraq and Syria. War between US and Iran is very probable and isn't gonna be that easy. Trump acted like a total idiot and risked the lives of all the americans from the Middle East. Iran was such a beautiful country before the islamic revolution
At this point I'm enjoying the memes with WW3 like these ones

 

[RandAlThor]

I'm curious what are gonna be the reactions from the other NATO leaders like Merkel, Macron, Trudeau. Johnson is as much of a clown as Trump, he will support him. WW3 isn't gonna happen, Russia and China aren't gonna risk their asses over some guy who isn't really important to them. The guy wasn't innocent, thousands of people died because of him in Iraq and Syria. War between US and Iran is very probable and isn't gonna be that easy. Trump acted like a total idiot and risked the lives of all the americans from the Middle East. Iran was such a beautiful country before the islamic revolution
At this point I'm enjoying the memes with WW3 like this one

Blame Jimmy he is the root cause of all of this current mess.
The shah was not a nice guy but he was the pin that kept the area from going crazy.

No real added risk from Iran they are as bat shit crazy as its possible to get. Not like they can hate the US more.