Israel admits role in assassination of Qassem Soleimani

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 2 January 2021. [Fatemeh Bahrami – Anadolu Agency]

Israel was involved in the assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani, the former head of Israel’s military intelligence said yesterday.

Soleimani, who was considered the mastermind of the pro-Iran proxies in the region, was killed in an American drone strike near the Iraqi capital Baghdad in January 2020.

According to Israeli daily Haaretz, former Israeli army intelligence chief Major General Tamir Hayman told the Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Centre that the killing of Soleimani was one of “two significant and important assassinations” during his tenure.

The other assassination, he said, was that of the military leader of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Bahaa Abu Al-Ata.

“Soleimani’s assassination is an achievement, since our main enemy, in my eyes, are the Iranians. Two significant and important assassinations can be noted in my term,” Hayman said.

Several days after Soleimani was killed, NBC News reported that Israeli intelligence helped the United States target him.

Hayman’s tenure as Israeli army intelligence chief ended in October. He has said that Israel has carried out multiple operations to disrupt the spread of Iranian weapons and funds throughout the region.

Iran: Israel root cause of all troubles in Middle East, says foreign minister

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.