Kurdistan denies role in Qasem Soleimani’s assassination

People attend a commemoration ceremony held within the first anniversary of Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani’s killing in Kerman, Iran on January 2, 2021 [Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency]

The Kurdistan Counter-Terrorism Group (CTG) in northern Iraq yesterday denied reports that it had particated in the assassination of the former Iranian Quds Force Commander, Qasem Soleimani.

Soleimani and the head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, were assassinated on 3 January 2020 in an American airstrike near Baghdad airport.

“We categorically deny the knowledge, awareness, or involvement of our forces in such an act,” CTG said in a statement. “General Qasem Soleimani was a close friend of the late Mam Jalal [Talabani], and counter-terrorism units once fought on the frontlines against terrorism where Qasem Soleimani was also fighting,” the statement read.

The statement added that the Kurdish agents had welcomed Soleimani to Baghdad airport prior to his targeting.

READ: ‘Iraq and region on verge of explosion’, says Ex-Kurdistan president

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