Soleimani’s assassination may trigger end of US military presence in Iraq: Paper

A report says the assassination of Iran’s senior Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani might trigger the pullout of the United States from Iraq.

An article published on Friday in the British daily The Guardian said that the US assassination of Lieutenant General Soleimani, who used to command the Quds Force of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), might result in the “ultimate objective of ending the US military presence in Iraq.”

The opinion piece reminded that Lieutenant General Soleimani had “succeeded to bleed the US military in places like Iraq” -- where he would provide extensive advisory support for Baghdad’s counter-terrorism operations.

It also credited the late lieutenant general with possibly “trapping the US into initiating its own ejection from Iraq” during his engagement with the Arab country.

‘A hero’

The article reminded that Soleimani’s helping Iraq overcome the Daesh Takfiri terror group had earned him far-and-wide support as “a hero” in both his homeland and among the Arab nation.

His martyrdom, it added, would likely only add to his popularity by serving as a “rallying cry” among his supporters.

‘A new Quds Force generation’

The feature also credited Lieutenant General Soleimani with raising a new generation of Quds Force servicemen, whom he would trust with extensive “operational authority” during his commandership.

The assassination would come back to haunt US President Donald Trump, on whose direct orders the air raid was carried out, The Guardian observed.

The paper said by targeting Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Second-in-Command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), who was assassinated alongside Lieutenant General Soleimani in the attack “the Trump administration has put itself in the position of having assassinated the operational commander of a large branch of the Iraqi armed forces.”

ME