2020: US drones kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani

On Jan. 3, 2020, on the orders of President Trump, an American drone fired a missile that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force, as he prepared to leave the Baghdad airport. Soleimani is described by analysts as the second most powerful man in Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

At the time, the Trump administration asserted that he was directing an imminent attack against U.S. assets in the region, but officials have not provided clear evidence to support that claim.

Iran responded by launching ballistic missiles that hit two American bases in Iraq. As Iran entered a heightened state of alert, preparing for a possible U.S. retaliation, it accidentally shot down a commercial Ukrainian airliner departing Tehran for Kyiv, killing all 176 people aboard.

This article by Jeffrey Fields first appeared in 2019 in The Conversation via Creative Commons License.

Image: Reuters.