Free Republic

Iranian General Qassem Soleimani arrived at the Damascus airport in a vehicle with dark-tinted glass. Four soldiers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards rode with him. They parked near a staircase leading to a Cham Wings Airbus A320, destined for Baghdad. Neither Soleimani nor the soldiers were registered on the passenger manifesto, according to a Cham Wings airline employee who described the scene of their departure from the Syrian capital to Reuters. Soleimani avoided using his private plane because of rising concerns about his own security, said an Iraqi security source with knowledge of Soleimani’s security arrangements. The passenger flight would be...

"The Five" panelists responded Monday to Democrats who criticized President Trump's warning to Iran over possible retaliation for the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleiman after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., called the president a “monster" and accused him of committing "war crimes" for ordering the attack.

Sentiments among Iranian social media users appear to be dramatically divided over the targeted killing of IRGC Qods Force Commander Qassem Soleimani. Most of the debate revolves around the variations in the characterization of the man and the way his life ended. The debate is whether he was "the world's biggest terrorist" as President Donald Trump has said or "a national hero" and "an icon" as many Iranians, even some of the opponents of the Islamic Republic seem to believe. Another aspect of the online debate is about whether he has been "Killed, martyred, or assassinated." Some Iranian Twitter users...

Khobar Towers June 23, 2006 The Wall Street Journal Louis J. Freeh Ten years ago this Sunday, acting under direct orders from senior Iranian government leaders, the Saudi Hezbollah detonated a 25,000-pound TNT bomb that killed 19 U.S. airmen in their dormitory at Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The blast wave destroyed Building 131 and grievously wounded hundreds of additional Air Force personnel. It also killed an unknown number of Saudi civilians in a nearby park. The 19 Americans murdered were members of the 4404th Wing, who were risking their lives to enforce the no-fly zone over southern Iraq....

BEIRUT (Reuters) - One of Shi'ite Islam's highest religious authorities praised Wednesday the "sincerity" of U.S. President Barack Obama's message to the Muslim world and predicted a positive outcome for his approach to Iran. Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said Obama appeared to be a man of "human values" but would be judged on his actions. The ayatollah urged Obama to rethink policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Trying to repair America's damaged image abroad, Obama said on a visit to predominantly Muslim Turkey this week that the United States was not at war with Islam.

For more than a decade, Hezbollah and therefore Iran have maintained “sleeper agents” in America who await only a coded signal to commit mass murder and wreak maximum chaos. “There would be certain scenarios that would require action or conduct by those who belonged to the cell,” one of three sleeper agents arrested by the FBI since 2017 is quoted saying in court papers. The sleeper agent, Ali Kourani, told the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force that he would have expected to be activated if Iran and the United States went to war. “The unit is Iranian controlled,” Kourani said....

On January 3, 2020, near Baghdad's airport, a U.S. air raid targeted Qasem Soleimani, commander of Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (“IRGC’s”) terrorist arm. He was killed instantly. To understand how important this is, one needs to understand who Qasem Soleimani (1957-2020) was. Soleimani, a one-time construction worker and weightlifter, joined the IRGC after the 1979 revolution and soon headed one of the IRGC’s main cadres. Khomeini assigned Soleimani to suppress a Kurdish movement in Mahabad, Western Azerbaijan. Soleimani's brutality earned him command over a Quds Guard Corps unit in Kerman. The Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) gave Soleimani opportunities...