Iraq's Hezbollah accuses high-ranking officials of working with US to assassinate Qassem Soleimani

Al Masdar News
Thu, 05 Mar 2020 05:02 UTC

Comment: Although the following claim is that it was the Iraqis who colluded with the Americans to off Soleimani, it's hard to imagine this happening without the Iranians knowing...

© Press Office of Iranian Supreme Leader/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani

Kata'ib Hezbollah in Iraq hinted at the involvement of high-ranking officials in the assassination of the commander of the Quds Force, Major-General Qassem Soleimani, and the deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, on January 3rd.

In a statement, Kata'ib Hezbollah accused "one of the ministers in Iraq with the intelligence chief of assisting in the killing of Soleimani and Al-Mohandis," and expressed its readiness to provide evidence to the former prime minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, exclusively.

They said in statement posted on their official website, "There is no doubt that Al-Kazemi (intelligence chief) was involved in the killing of the leaders," adding that "this historical crime was done with the knowledge of one of the three ministers that facilitated this cowardly act."

They continued: "We are ready to provide the information we have on this matter, exclusively, to Mr. Adel Abdul Mahdi."

The U.S. announced the killing of the commander of the Quds Force on January 3 in a drone attack, while Iran described the attack as "state terrorism" and vowed revenge.

On January 8, Iran launched a missile attack on two military bases in Iraq, including the Ain al-Assad base, which houses about 1,500 US soldiers.

Comment: Kata'ib Hezbollah's suspicions are well-founded. Iran's response to the assassination was very... 'stage-managed', shall we say: much fiery rhetoric but not much in the way of a surprise counter-attack against the US. It remains to be seen what if any evidence this organization will present to the former Iraqi PM and perhaps make public, but in the meantime, we note that the issue has become very quiet since the world apparently stood 'on the brink of WW3' back in early January. Additionally, the Iranians have said nada about the downing of the Ukraine Airlines plane, which seemed pretty obviously, to us, to have been the result of its air defense system being tricked into doing so.

It's as if the Iranian leadership just wanted it all to... die down and go away.