Commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Iraq's PMU deputy head assassinated in US strike

Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), have been assassinated in US airstrikes in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

 

The IRGC announced in a statement on Friday morning that Major General Soleimani and al-Muhandis were martyred in an airstrike. The Iraqi pro-government group also confirmed the incident. 

"The deputy head of the Hashed, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and head of the Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, were killed in a US strike that targeted their car on the Baghdad International Airport road," it said in a statement on Friday.

"The American and Israeli enemy is responsible for killing the mujahideen Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Qassem Soleimani," said Ahmed al-Assadi, a PMU spokesman. 

The group had earlier said that its public relations director Mohammed Reza al-Jaberi and four other members of the group were also killed after three Katyusha rockets struck a military base next to Baghdad International Airport in the Iraqi capital.

This picture shows the aftermath of a rocket attack on Baghdad International Airport, Iraq, early on January 3, 2020. (Photo via Facebook)

The media bureau of the voluntary forces – better known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Shabai – described the early Friday morning attack as a  "cowardly US bombing”.

The rockets landed near the air cargo terminal, burning two vehicles and injuring several people, the Iraqi Interior Ministry's Security Media Cell said in an earlier statement.

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