A Life of Jihad, A Death by Drone

"To Iran and its proxy militias: We will not accept the continued attacks against our personnel and forces in the region."
"Attacks against us will be met with responses in the time, manner and place of our choosing. We urge the Iranian regime to end malign activities."
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper

Intelligence by U.S. agencies led U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the last few days, to speak with principals in the Middle East to gain a consensus and to alert them to a proposed action by the United States in reaction to the Islamic Republic of Iran's ongoing and increasingly provocative actions. Mr. Pompeo spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the UAE's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salmon in Saudi Arabia, all with firm collegial bonds with the U.S.

But he didn't stop there. He called leaders in Iran and Qatar warning Shiite militia leaders sanctioned by the U.S. to alert them and other leaders of the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Units that the U.S. was prepared to take action of a preventive nature, based on their intercepted plans for future attacks against U.S. military personnel and the interests of American . And then the warning became reality. Reality was that jihadist leaders so self-assured as to believe themselves invulnerable to harm proceeded with their plans.

As two 'important guests' to Iraq deplaned at Baghdad airport in the pre-dawn hours on Thursday transferring their presence to a convoy of vehicles they were blown to smithereens.

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, killed with Qassem Soleimani in air strike

Muhandis, the key disciple of Soleimani had been responsible on December 27 for the attack at K-1 resulting in the death of a U.S. contractor and wounding of American military personnel. As a proud jihadi devoted to his cause he was responsible for attacks on Americans dating to the 1980s.
He has been responsible for attacks on Americans since the 1980s. He was a key supporter of Lebanon's Hezbollah, working in tandem with Imad Mughniyeh before he was eliminated in 2008; now he joins him in Paradise, a martyr to their mutual jihad.

From Kuwait to Lebanon it has been decades that Muhandis has directed terrorism against American diplomatic facilities. He was responsible in no small part, along with the commander of the al Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani in training, supporting and weaponizing the Lebanese militia proxy for Iran, the 'Party of God', and in Iraq, the counterpart Kataib Hezbollah. Their deaths a shock to the Iranian Republic, an assault on the sensibilities of the current Iraqi government, but a victory for protesters in Iraq, Lebanon and Iran itself, despite that Iranian Foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif characterizing the U.S. attack as a "cowardly terrorist action" giving Iran the right to respond "in any method and any time", in a sense paraphrasing U.S. Defense Secretary Esper.

Under the pretense of bragging that they were involved in fighting Islamic State, there was method involved; whatever the Sunni Islam Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant vacated left room for the Shiite militias deeply allied with Iran and doing their bidding in Iran's interests, to occupy areas, widening their own territory, broadening their influence and raising their confidence to levels enabling them to attack U.S. bases in the belief there would be no consequences. Their arrogance led to their sloppiness in failing to acknowledge the potential of consequences -- just as deadly as those they inflicted.

Their failure to anticipate such a response represented part of their delusion that they were all-powerful, to be feared, respected and never challenged. The excesses they were guilty of in death and destruction were merely representations of their right to forge their path forward as warriors of Islam which led to their becoming martyrs of Islam. From the battlefield to Paradise. And nor did they forget to forge a kind of legitimacy for themselves as part of the governments in Lebanon and Iraq with free rein to act as they wished, for who was there to stop them in their dedication to jihad?

Qasem Soleimani, commander of IRGC Quds Force

(photo credit: SAYYED SHAHAB-O-DIN VAJEDI/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

Their recruitment grew alongside the support from Iran and their growing reputations of the Shiite militias, gathered under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilization Units, influential and dominant. Stockpiling munitions and transiting ballistic missiles courtesy Iran to Syria. They were the admirable 'resistance' against the interfering West whose time would eventually come. Intent on providing Hezbollah with ever more sophisticated precision guided munitions which Israel managed to intercept and destroy from time to time.

But then of course, Israel would be dealt with in due course as well, in a pincer movement from Gaza to Syria and Lebanon. Israel, of course, had its own plans in support of its intended longevity when it carried out over a thousand airstrikes against the entrenchment of Iranian posts in Syria and Iraq. For the moment, jubilation in the West with the expiration date moved forward on these two commanders. The December 29 attack on the U.S. Embassy, perhaps viewed as an extension of Revolutionary Iran's successful attack on the American embassy in Tehran, was yet another error in judgement.

Euphoria-inducing at first when thousands of Iran's Shiite supporters congregated in the Green Zone and mounted their attack on the embassy protective barrier. The Badr Organization and Kataib Hezbollah assaulted the embassy as payback for U.S. strikes targeting several Shiite commanders a day earlier which had responded to Kataib Hezbollah's bombing of U.S. bases. The Shiite attackers on the embassy wrote "Soleimani is my leader" on the guardhouse; the U.S. an interloper, Soleimani the authority in Baghdad defiant of American presence, intent on driving it out.

The reception room at the US Embassy in Baghdad destroyed

An action that led directly to the targeting of Soleimani and Muhandis. The Revolutionary Guard Corps members are in deep mourning, the Ayatollahs are in shock and the Iranian public is divided; part in rage over the death of the jihadist icon, part in ecstasy that their hated regime has been put to the test. Already Ayatollah Khamenei has elevated Soleimani's second-in-command to replace him, and it will be a certainty that the new al Quds commander will be a worthy adversary doing the bidding of the Ayatollahs and just as likely to underestimate the resolve of the United States to strike back twice as hard as the most robust efforts at terrorism as the Iranian Republic can muster with its long experience in violent disruptions.

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

General Qassem Soleimani has killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans over an extended period of time, and was plotting to kill many more...but got caught! He was directly and indirectly responsible for the death of millions of people, including the recent large number....

Donald J. Trump

 An Army brigade has been placed on alert to fly into Lebanon with a focus on protection of the U.S. embassy there. Iraqi forces are being trained by about five thousand American troops. Security alerts have been issued for Americans in Bahrain, Kuwait and Nigeria, with the Middle East and North Africa is alight with rage.

"At the direction of the President, the US military has taken decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization."
"General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more."
"The Iranian leader had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months [including the attack on December 27th, culminating in the death and wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel]."
"General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week."Pentagon statement