Title : The Trump Administration's Assassination of Qassem Soleimani
link : The Trump Administration's Assassination of Qassem Soleimani
The Trump Administration's Assassination of Qassem Soleimani
After you read this report.. Power struggle in Kurdish region of Iraq raises questions - Analysis you would or should be aware of the conspiracy to kill Qassem Soleimani as was touched upon there.
"In an incredibly bizarre, an likely inaccurate account earlier this year, the CTG was even said to have been “involved in the US assassination of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in the first days of 2020 in Baghdad, according to a new piece of investigative journalism.”
As stated at that time
I wouldn't suggest that the report is inaccurate. In fact the involvement of US allied CTG, in the assassination of Soleimani, makes quite a bit of sense. Acting as private mercs for hire the US could use them while showing 'clean hands'Let's read the piece that exposed this plot. Be warned it will require 20 minutes of your time.
(Check the link for the entire piece)
The Plan to Kill Qassem Soleimani
Three teams of Delta Force operators peered through their scopes from concealed locations at Baghdad International Airport last January, waiting for their target: Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s most powerful military commander. Disguised as maintenance workers, the operators had secreted into position in old buildings or vehicles on the side of the road.
It was a cool, overcast night and the southeast side of the airport had been shut down on short notice for a military training exercise — or so the Iraqi government was told. The three sniper teams positioned themselves 600 to 900 yards away from the “kill zone,” the access road from the airfield, setting up to triangulate their target as he left the airport. One of the snipers had a spotting scope with a camera attached that livestreamed back to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, where the Delta Ground Force commander was based with support staff.
Long-range marksmanship involves contesting with a variety of environmental factors, including wind, but the Delta teams didn't rely on guesswork. A member of the Counter Terrorism Group (CTG), an elite Kurdish unit in northern Iraq with deep links to U.S. Special Operations, helped them make the wind call from down range.
Flight From Damascus
The flight from Damascus, Syria, finally landed after midnight on Jan. 3, 2020, several hours behind schedule. Three U.S. drones orbited overhead. As the plane taxied off the runway, toward the closed-off portion of the airfield, one of the Kurdish operatives disguised as ground crew guided the aircraft to a halt on the tarmac. When the target stepped off the airplane, Kurdish CTG operators posing as baggage handlers were also present to positively identify him.
Soleimani had just arrived at Baghdad International. The Iranian general and his entourage loaded into two vehicles and drove toward the kill zone, where the Delta Force snipers lay in wait.
In the six hours before Soleimani boarded his flight from Damascus, the Iranian general switched cellphones three times, according to a U.S. military official. In Tel Aviv, U.S. Joint Special Operations Command liaisons worked with their Israeli counterparts to help track Soleimani’s cellphone patterns. The Israelis, who had access to Soleimani’s numbers, passed them off to the Americans, who traced Soleimani and his current phone to Baghdad. (The Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to a request for comment.)
Task Force Orange
Members of the secretive Army unit known as Task Force Orange were also on the ground in Baghdad that night, said the military official, providing “knob turners” — close-range signals intelligence experts — to help home in on Soleimani’s electronics for the tactical portion of the operation.
This article, based on interviews with 15 current and former U.S. officials, reveals new details about the Soleimani strike and the Trump administration’s long-running deliberations about killing the Iranian general and other top Iranian officials and proxies. It depicts an operation that was more sophisticated, and with a broader list of people potentially targeted for killing, than was previously known. And it describes previously unreported threats to U.S. officials in the aftermath of the strike.
As the two vehicles moved into the kill zone, drone operators fired on the motorcade. Two hellfire missiles crashed down on Soleimani’s vehicle, obliterating it in the street. The driver of the second vehicle stepped on the gas to escape. The driver made it about 100 yards before slamming on the brakes when a Delta Force sniper engaged, firing on the vehicle. Just as the vehicle ground to a halt, a third hellfire missile struck, blasting it apart.
CIA Wanted to Hide the US Hand
The CIA officials, who wanted to hide the U.S. hand in any such operation, discussed various possible plans for killing Soleimani, recalled this former official. That same year, Pompeo at National Security Council meetings also broached the subject of killing Iran’s top military brass, as part of a potential leadership decapitation strategy. The plans, which would have involved the U.S. military, were resisted at the time by other NSC officials, some of whom worried about the legality of such actions.
The US attempted other hits at that time
Indeed, the U.S. tried to kill the Quds Force’s top commander in Yemen, Abdulreza Shahlai, the night of the Soleimani strike, said several U.S. officials (The Shalhai strike was first reported by the Washington Post.) Shahlai had long been of interest to U.S. officials, going back to his days running the ratlines from Iran to Iraq in the 2000s that helped supply Tehran’s proxies with bomb-making equipment that killed hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq. More recently, Shahlai was overseeing Iran’s efforts to covertly supply its Houthi allies in Yemen with weapons, said a former senior CIA official. Shahlai survived, but “his days are numbered,” said Miller.
Advance Planning
In late December 2019, Delta Force operators and other special operations members began filtering into Baghdad in small groups. Kurdish operatives, who played a key role in the killing, had already started infiltrating Baghdad International Airport by that point, going undercover as baggage handlers and other staff members. The complex operation required a “significant deployment of personnel,” said the U.S. military official, who declined to specify a precise number. It was “the most sophisticated prep the department has done” in counterterrorism operations, said former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller.
As the Delta Force operators and their Kurdish allies positioned themselves at the Baghdad airport, in Washington, D.C., a small group of top officials, including Kellogg, Coates, Greenway, and Brian Hook, the State Department’s special representative for Iran, gathered in the Situation Room to prepare for the strike. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo watched from the Pentagon.
Grabbing DNA to Verify the Kill
Not mentioned by Trump was one critical detail. After the strike, according to two U.S. officials, a Kurdish operative disguised as an Iraqi police officer walked up to the wreckage of Soleimani’s vehicle, snapped photographs and quickly obtained a tissue sample for DNA confirmation before walking away and vanishing into the night.Read the entire piece at the link. According to Jerusalem Post this is "likely inaccurate". Can't see how that conclusion can be made?
Related reports from PFYT:
-
The US Assassinates An Iranian General
-
Saudi Oil Attack: Is this the Big One? If it is, who is it the "big one" for? ARAMACO's Pending Stock Offering?
-
Cruise Missiles Used in Saudi Oil Facility Attack? US Weapons Did NOT Protect the Facilities Effectively
Thus Article The Trump Administration's Assassination of Qassem Soleimani
You are now reading the article The Trump Administration's Assassination of Qassem Soleimani with the link address https://janggalnews.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-trump-administrations-assassination.html
0 Response to "The Trump Administration's Assassination of Qassem Soleimani"
Post a Comment