3 January 2020, the Commander of the IRGC Quds Forces Qasem Soleimani was killed near the Baghdad International Airport by the US Airstrike.
Soleimani was responsible for the Iranian operations outside the country and was supervising many Iranian proxies all over the Middle East.
His organization and proxy-organizations, founded by him, are behind numerous terrorist attacks and attacks on US citizens all across the Middle East.
Qasem Soleimani was a crucial figure in the Iranian hybrid war, which is being waged in different forms from South America to the Eastern Mediterranean.
Soleimani’s death is a severe blow to conservative circles in Tehran’s regime hierarchy.
Despite the immediate hysterical reaction from Tehran, right after the news about the liquidation of the General, there are suggestions that the information about Soleimani’s location and route came directly from Tehran, namely from the circles inside the regime, that didn’t like the General’s privileged position, high power and authority in the country. Qasem Soleimani did not satisfy many influential people in Iran, even inside the IRGC.
Names of Soleimani, his family members and officials, close to him, many times appeared in corruption scandals in Iran. For example, Soleimani’s name appeared at the trial of the Iran’s Former Vice-President Hamid Bagai, names of his family members appeared during the investigation of corruption offenses of the Mayor of Tehran Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. Soleimani was one of the recipients of the ransom, liberally paid by the Qatar authorities to free the members of the ruling family, kidnapped during the hunt in Iraq.
Mahdi Jahangiri, brother of Iran’s Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri, accused of significant corruption offense, was actually given exemption following the intervention of Qasem Soleimani. Thanks to his integrity, based on his closeness to the Supreme Leader and his position, neither Soleimani nor his family members became defendants in any corruption cases, affiliated with their names and never appeared in court.
These and many other factors lead to the emergence of a fraction in Tehran, strongly dissatisfied with Soleimani; getting rid of him became way too important for this group of people.
Liquidation of Soleimani also demonstrated that the US would no more deal with the situation in the Middle East and are ready to cope with Iran’s challenges, not only by strengthening sanctions. So, legendary for the Iranian nationalists, General Soleimani left the scene and was sent to his final journey in the American car, with the crowd yelling “death to America!”