Trump ordered killing of top Iranian military commander: Pentagon

The death of Qasem Soleimani, who led the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds force, heightened fears of an armed conflict between the U.S. and Iran that could easily pull in other countries.

US President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Iran Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, who died in Baghdad “in a decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad,” the Pentagon said.

“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Qasem Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more,” the Department of Defence said.

Following Soleimani’s death, Trump tweeted an image of the US flag without any further explanation. The strike, which occurred at Baghdad’s international airport on Friday in Iraq, also killed the deputy chief of Iraq’s powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force. A pro-Iran mob this week laid siege to the US embassy following deadly American air strikes on a hardline Hashed faction.\

The US had called the strikes in response to a rocket attack days earlier that had killed an American contractor working in Iraq. The Baghdad airport was hit in a volley of missiles just after midnight Friday, Iraq’s military had announced

Iran’s celebrity, West’s terrorist: Who was General Qasem Soleimani

Soleimani was the key planner of Iran’s local impact, driving the battle against jihadist powers and broadening Iran’s conciliatory heave in Iraq, Syria and past

Progressive Guards administrator Qasem Soleimani, who was killed Friday in a US strike, was one of the most well known figures in Iran and seen as a lethal enemy by America and its partners. General Soleimani, who headed the outer tasks Quds Force for the Guards, had employed his local clout openly since 2018 when it was uncovered that he had direct association in top-level talks over the arrangement of Iraq’s administration.

It was nothing unexpected at the ideal opportunity for a man who has been at the focal point of intensity broking in the district for two decades. Qasem Soleimani has been in and out of Baghdad from that point forward, most as of late a month ago as gatherings looked to shape another administration. Where once he kept to the shadows, Soleimani has lately become an improbable big name in Iran – packed with an immense after on Instagram.

His profile rose abruptly when he was pushed forward as the general population face of Iran’s mediation in the Syrian clash from 2013, showing up in combat zone photographs, narratives – and in any event, being highlighted in a music video and vivified film. In an uncommon meeting disclosed on Iranian state TV in October, he said he was in Lebanon during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war to regulate the contention…

This girl became the Instagram queen of Iraq. And then was shot to death

Ms. Fares’s likeness remains repeated in this internet hall of mirrors: swathed in a hotel robe, getting her hair done on Eid al-Fitr, playing video games, flaunting her intricate tattoos

BS|On Oct. 9, the Iraqi author Sinan Antoon tweeted, “Killing those who are other/different has become a ritual/hobby, practiced by individuals for fun, after having been institutionalized by the state, political parties and militias for years.” His tweet referred to reports that an Iraqi teenager had been butchered on a Baghdad street by an assailant who thought he looked gay. But Mr. Antoon could have been referring to any of the young Iraqis who have tried to break free of the rigid social codes governing both genders only to suffer vicious reprisals.

The most famous of these victims has been Tara Fares. When she was killed in September, Ms. Fares, who had 2.8 million followers on Instagram, was the sixth most popular person on Iraqi social media. At 22, she was a self-created celebrity who mixed sexy fashion shoots with video diaries in which she fired back at her conservative critics. Ms. Fares was shot dead in Baghdad’s Camp Sarah neighborhood while riding in her Porsche.

When I read about Ms. Fares’s murder, recognition hit me like a punch. Though I am 13 years her senior, when I was her age, I also worked as a scantily clad internet model. I also reinvented myself on social media, posting endless photos of myself, trying to build a following that would somehow translate into something more. Back then, qualified only for menial jobs, I also saw my looks as a fast-closing door to freedom and used them as best I could. But I am in the United States, and she was in Iraq. The stakes for Ms. Fares were far higher. Her