The Islamic Republic of Iran -- Death by Misadventure

"[The missiles had 1,000 to 2,000-pound warheads on them, each with significant explosive power and] kill radius."
"I believe, based on what I saw and what I know, is that [the strikes] were intended to cause structural damage, destroy vehicles and equipment and aircraft and to kill personnel. That's my own personal assessment."
"But the analytics is in the hands of professional intelligence analysts. So they're looking at that."
U.S. Army General Mark Milley, chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

"It is clear these missiles were launched from Iran and targeted at least two Iraqi military and coalition personnel."
"As we evaluate the situation and our response, we will take all necessary measures to protect and defend U.S. personnel, partners, and allies in the region."
Pentagon statement

"Lacking a modern airforce, Iran  has embraced ballistic missiles as a long-range strike capability to dissuade its adversaries from attacking Iran."
"Iran also has the largest missile force in the Middle East, with substantial inventory of close-range ballistic missiles, short-range ballistic missiles and medium-range ballistic missiles that can strike targets throughout the region as far as 2,000 kilometres away."
Christian Saunders, senior defence analyst, Pentagon

And so, in retaliation for a U.S. drone striking four missiles at a two-vehicle convey setting out from Baghdad International Airport last Thursday to target and destroy Iran's commander of the IRGC Quds Force, Qassam Soleimani who was accompanied by the leader of the Iranian-sponsored militia Kataib Hezbollah and five other Iraqi militia terrorists, Iranian forces launched over a dozen ballistic missiles against two military bases in Iraq with the intention of striking American forces.

Iran has been fuming at the assassination of Soleimani, revered in the country as a national treasure, a warrior for Shiite Islam, and mastermind behind countless bloody attacks by Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, extending attack blueprints into Afghanistan, and Yemen, and above all, enabling Syria's murderous President Bashar al-Assad to slaughter a half-million Sunni Syrians. Second in esteem and power only to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Soleimani boasted he would erase Israel and drive the U.S. from the Middle East.

The funeral for Brig.Gen. Qassam Soleimani was attended by hundreds of thousands of Iranians, mourning their martyred champion. When his casket procession travelled to Kerman, the town of his birth, the route followed a narrowing passage insufficient for a fluid advance of the crowds, and panic ensued, people were trampled, and many more Iranians joined Soleimani in martyrdom; over 50 funeral attendees died, and hundreds were injured, delaying his burial.



The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps proudly took responsibility for the barrage of missiles that targeted two bases, one in Western Iraq, the other facility in Kurdistan's Erbil, both hosting U.S. servicemen. According to initial estimates, damage to the facilities appears minimal. And while Tehran claims that over 200 American soldiers were killed in the attacks, the White House scathingly gave the number of American casualties as zero; no deaths whatever. As the Pentagon continues to take stock that will be either verified or rebutted.

"They're still in bunker mode", one U.S. official stated, speaking of ongoing assessment of possible damage resulting from the strikes. The Pentagon had anticipated that Iran was prepared to deploy a rising number of "more accurate and lethal ballistic missiles" as its technology evolves. It has supplied quite a stock of missiles to Lebanon's Hezbollah and the other terrorist group, Hamas in Gaza. Both their targets are known to be Israel; threats to Israel's existence by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and by its proxy terrorist groups are well known.

The Anbar base houses part of the five thousand American troops stationed in Iraq, training local forces in conflict practise against the Islamic State, considered to be the ultimate Islamist jihadi terrorist group, on the Sunni divide in Islam. This is as much a sectarian war, rife throughout the Middle East and beyond as the the conflict in Syria reflects. Heretofore, Iran's Quds Force and their militias have targeted its Saudi Sunni regional counterpart's oil interests on land and by sea.

The increasing attacks by the Shiite proxies against U.S. installations notched the situation up substantially, when Kataib Hezbollah launched 31 rockets at a base near Kirkuk killing a contractor and wounding a few U.S. troops. An action following on others that finally persuaded the U.S. military to return airstrikes on targets linked to Iranian-backed forces. When Kataib Hezbollah engineered an attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, triumphantly teaching the U.S. a lesson, it backfired.

The American response was to target Brig.Gen Soleimani and the leader of Kataib Hezbollah. And Tehran, in its disbelief and its grief at the loss of one of its most competent of terrorist strategists became somewhat careless when it allowed missiles to continue crowding the skies over Tehran, even while a Ukrainian Airlines passenger jet with 175 aboard took off and moments later, exploded in the air, falling in pieces to the ground below. Like Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shot down over rebel eastern Ukraine by a Russian Buk missile in 2014.  Leading to the deaths of all aboard then, and this time around as well.

Unsurprisingly, Tehran is firm in its intention to withhold the black boxes retrieved from the wreckage from scrutiny by Ukrainian or American investigators. Just notch up more deaths resulting from the nefariously deadly schemes of the Islamic Republic of Iran intent on its commanding imperialist agenda of Shia conquest in a Sunni Arab landscape.