‘Following an explosive week between the US and Iran, it has been revealed that the Pentagon secretly discussed targeting Iranian General Qassem Soleimani for 18 months before making the decision to strike.
As tensions escalated between the two nations, the US had a list of targets in mind in case Iran ever attacked the US. When American civilian contractor Nawres Waleed Hamid was killed when rockets hit the K1 military base in Kirkuk, Iraq on December 27, Washington was ready to act.
After months of tracking Soleimani, the second most powerful man in Iran, the plan to finally strike him was rolled out on January 3, 2020, a move that thrust the US to the brink of war, according to a New York Times report based on interviews with dozens of Trump administration and military officials.
Soleimani was known as a 62-year-old high-flying general and leader of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps who was behind proxy wars in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. He was one of the most ruthless commanders in the region who for years worked in the shadows but emerged in the spotlight following the Arab Spring and the war with the Islamic State. He’s seen as the mastermind behind Iran’s fight for regional dominance.’
