Excerpt
Shia cleric reactivates powerful anti-US army after airstrike kills Iran general
A prominent Iraqi cleric has called an anti-US army to arms following the death of a top Iranian general in an airstrike in Baghdad. Muqtada al-Sadr tweeted that he was reactivating the army this morning following the death of Qasem Soleimani – an assassination that was ordered by Donald Trump. He said ‘I, as the official of the Iraqi National Resistance, give an order to the readiness of the Mujahideen, especially the Imam Mahdi Army and the Promised Today Brigade and whoever commands our order from the national disciplined factions to be fully prepared to protect Iraq.’
This morning all US citizens were ordered to leave Iraq immediately.
The killing of the general – Iran’s second in command and head of the elite Quds Force – marks a major escalation in the standoff between Washington and Iran, which has careened from one crisis to another since President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned that a ‘harsh retaliation is waiting’ for the US after the airstrike, calling Soleimani the ‘international face of resistance.’ Khamenei declared three days of public mourning for the general’s death. Iran also summoned the Swiss charges d’affaires, who represents US interests in Tehran, to protest the killing.
The killing, and any forceful retaliation by Iran, could ignite a conflict that engulfs the whole region, endangering US troops in Iraq, Syria and beyond. Over the last two decades, Soleimani assembled a network of powerful and heavily armed allies stretching all the way to southern Lebanon, on Israel’s doorstep.
The Defense Department said it killed Soleimani because he ‘was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.’ It also accused Soleimani of approving the orchestrated violent protests at the US Embassy in Baghdad earlier this week. Iranian state television called Trump’s order to kill Soleimani ‘the biggest miscalculation by the US’ since World War II. ‘The people of the region will no longer allow Americans to stay,’ it said. The airport strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, and five others, including the PMF’s airport protocol officer, Mohammed Reda, Iraqi officials said.
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