Locations in Iraq Hit with Rocket Attacks

Could the Iranians, or their proxies, have retaliated recently? Rockets hit some targets in Iraq, no US service member injured as of the reporting. This should develop as the weekend progresses. The entire initial report is quoted:

From Reuters:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Several rockets fell on Saturday inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, its Jadriya neighborhood, and the Balad air base housing U.S. troops, the Iraqi military said, adding that there were no deaths.

“Several rockets targeting Celebration Square and the Jadriya area in Baghdad, and the Balad air base in Salahuddin province, with no loss of life. Further details to come,” the military said in a statement.

Here’s the link.

General Soleimani Taunted President Trump

Here is a New York Post article where General Soleimani talked as if his Army would defeat the US:

“Come, we are waiting for you. We are the real men on the scene, as far as you are concerned. You know that a war would mean the loss of all your capabilities. You may start the war, but we will be the ones to determine its end,” Qassem Soleimani said in a fiery July 2018 speech directed at Trump.

Eighteen months later, his death wish was granted when he was killed Friday in a missile attack near the Baghdad Airport, in the most significant military move in the Middle East of Trump’s tenure, one the President said was intended to stop Soleimani’s plots to kill more Americans.

 

Soleimani’s Replacement Appointed

The Iranian leadership has appointed a replacement for the general that was killed. Esmail Ghaani will oversee operations over the Quds Force and take over the current operations.

A key driver of that influence comes from the elite Quds Force, which works across the region with allied groups to offer an asymmetrical threat to counter the advanced weaponry wielded by the U.S. and its regional allies. Those partners include Iraqi militiamen, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

In announcing Ghaani as Soleimani’s replacement, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the new leader “one of the most prominent commanders” in service to Iran.

The Quds Force “will be unchanged from the time of his predecessor,” Khamenei said, according to IRNA.

Soleimani long has been the face of the Quds Force. His fame surged after American officials began blaming him for deadly roadside bombs targeting U.S. troops in Iraq. Images of him, long a feature of hard-line Instagram accounts and mobile phone lockscreens, now plaster billboards calling for Iran to avenge his death.

The Associated Press has more details here.

Category: Iran, Iraq