Iranian General Qasem Soleimani has been killed by an American drone strike in Baghdad at the direction of US President Donald Trump.
The Pentagon said the attack was launched to "protect US personnel abroad" and deter "future Iranian attack plans”. Soleimani was killed alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). The Pentagon added that Soleimani was plotting to "attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region".
In fact, the Pentagon holds the Soleimani-led Quds Force–an elite unit in Iran's Revolutionary Guards–responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American coalition service members, and for attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last few months.
Soleimani reported to the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and was widely recognized as the head of Iran's expanding ambitions in the Middle East. Under his watch, Iran conducted proxy wars in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. It backs Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war by arming the Shia Muslim fighters, supports a Shia-dominated paramilitary force against the Islamic State in Iraq, and holds considerable sway over the Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Trump Administration alleges that the Quds Force supports anti-American terrorist groups in the Middle by providing them with funds, training, and weapons. In fact, in April, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated Iran's Revolutionary Guards, under which the Quds Force falls, as a terrorist organization.
Javad Zarif, Iran's Foreign Minister, was quick to label the attack "extremely dangerous and a foolish escalation" and "an act of international terrorism".
Soleimani's death further destabilizes relations between the US and Iran, which have been particularly strained since Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018. This attack invites Iranian retaliation against American interests in the Middle East and the world at large.
This year alone, Iran shot down a US military surveillance drone, seized multiple foreign oil tankers, and is alleged to have attacked a state-owned oil facility in Saudi Arabia.
This past week, demonstrators stormed the US embassy in Baghdad following US airstrikes against Iranian-backed Iraqi militia. In response, Donald Trump tweeted that there will be “a very big price" for any damage or loss of life, adding that this was not a “warning”, but a “threat”.
The US believes that Iran is "fully responsible" for the attack on its Baghdad embassy and has deployed 750 U.S. soldiers and kept an additional 3,000 on standby for possible deployment.
Thus, Soleimani’s death alludes to and risks severe escalation from both Iran and the US, and has indefinitely extended US presence in the Middle East, which is now moving into its third decade.