Vowing revenge if justice isn’t sought, Iran demanded that Donald Trump be tried for the assassination by missile of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq two years ago today, Reuters reports. Two drones, reportedly Iranian, were shot down as they approached US military positions near the Baghdad Airport.
The leader of Iran’s Quds force and reportedly responsible for Iran’s international paramilitary operations, Soleimani was ordered killed by Trump while Soleimani was visiting Baghdad. The air strike resulted in the death of Soleimani and nine others as they were driving to Baghdad Airport for Soleimani’s departure. On the same day, Trump also ordered the assassination of Abdulreza Shahlai, an Iranian military commander and financial officer, who was targeted by a missile strike in Yemen; that mission was unsuccessful.
Iran responded with missile attacks on a US base in Iraq which resulted in more than 20 US personnel injured with head injuries. At the time, Trump dismissed the injuries as “headaches,” but required an unspecified number of troops to seek treatment at a US military hospital in Germany. Following the attack and retaliation, the world was on edge believing there would be further attacks, and gas prices spiked.
“If Trump and (former secretary of state Mike) Pompeo are not tried in a fair court for the criminal act of assassinating General Soleimani, Muslims will take our martyr’s revenge,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in a speech on Monday. “The aggressor, murderer and main culprit – the then president of the United States – must be tried and judged under the (Islamic) law of retribution, and God’s ruling must be carried out against him.”