The top Iranian general assassinated by the U.S. reportedly hatched a plot in October that was aimed at American targets, including the Christmas week rocket attack on an Iraq base that killed a U.S. military contractor.
Gen. Qassem Soleimani directed a key lieutenant and other Iraqi militia allies to step up attacks on Americans and their allies at a secret meeting in October held at his riverfront villa in Baghdad, just a stone’s throw away from the heavily fortified U.S. embassy, Reuters reported Saturday.
The doomed commander told the proxy fighters to use sophisticated new weaponry and high-tech drones smuggled into Iraq from neighboring Iran, the news agency reported.
The deadly plot bore fruit on Dec. 27 when an Iranian-backed militia fired rockets at a base, killing several Iraqi military personnel as well as an American contractor.
President Trump cited that act of violence as well as unspecified intelligence claiming more attacks on Americans were in the works as a justification for the drone attack that killed Soleimani on Thursday near Baghdad’s international airport.
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