Qassem Soleimani headed up the Quds Force for 22 years. He wasn’t exactly the Gandhiesque martyr to Trump’s madness that the Western media has portrayed him to be.
“Iran’s Quds Force aimed to launch terror groups in Africa, UN hears,” by Donna Rachel Edmunds, Jerusalem Post, January 17, 2020:
Iran’s Quds Force attempted to set up terror cells in Central Africa to strike Western, Israeli and Saudi targets, UN reporters have heard.
On April 19, a television report was broadcast on an international news channel carrying footage of Ismael Djidah, an ex-Séléka member, who had been arrested in Chad. “We want to create an army to fight against Westerners in Africa,” he was filmed as saying.
Séléka is an alliance of rebel militia groups of mostly Muslim membership who in March 2013 staged a coup of the Central African Republic and installed their leader, Michel Djotodia as the nation’s president. He remained in place until his resignation in January 2014. The group, meanwhile, was officially dissolved in September 2013, when the remaining rebel groups became known as ex-Séléka.
The footage was self incriminating. In a longer version obtained by a UN panel of experts for an official report on the Central African Republic, he revealed that, upon instruction from former Central African Republic president Michael Djotodia and with the support of Iran’s IRGC Quds Force, Djidah had set up an armed group named ‘Saraya Zahraa’ to wage violence against Western, Israeli and Saudi interests in Africa.
His intention was to create a force comprising 200 – 300 armed men, operating in coordination with other armed groups from Chad and Sudan. Djidah travelled to Iran, Lebanon and Iraq, and on each trip met with Quds Forces representatives who handed him sums of between $12,000 and $20,000. Between 30 and 40 others, who Djidah claimed were recruited from the ranks of ex-Séléka, also travelled to Lebanon, Iraq and Syria in 2017 and 2018 to take part in training, including in the use of firearms.
According to Djidah, the training was provided by individuals from Quds Force and Hezbollah, among others.
Aiming to corroborate the testimony, the UN panel gathered evidence confirming that Djidah did travel to Lebanon in March, July, September and December 2017, and again in February – March and July 2018. the United Arab Emirates confirmed to the panel in October 2019 that Djidah travelled from Dubai to Kish Island in Iran and back again in December 2016, staying for just one night. And a visa was found granting him permission to enter Iraq in October 2018….
mortimer says
Yes, the Rock Star of TERRORISM and crimes against humanity … presently in the ‘warm’ company of Adolf Eichmann, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao TseTung, Pol Pot, Tamerlane and Genghis Khan.
I approve of attacks against officers who COMMAND their troops to commit war crimes. No military attack could be MORE MORAL and ETHICAL than an attack against the leaders of a force committing atrocities. The leaders giving the orders to commit crimes against humanity should be taken out, rather than innocent civilians and conscripted soldiers naively obeying their orders. I somehow doubt Iran teaches its soldiers about INTERNATIONAL LAW OF WARFARE or about the RULES OF ENGAGEMENT!
THE TOP GENERALS HAVE STUDIED INTERNATIONAL LAW on the subject of WARFARE and have absolutely NO EXCUSES … they KNOW it is WRONG to commit atrocities, but Gen Soleimani commanded his troops to plan and commit actual war crimes.
But Soleimani DISOBEYED EVERYTHING HE KNEW ABOUT MILITARY ETHICAL PROTOCOLS !!!
In WWII, American pilots took out Adm Yamamoto near the Philippines and Canadian pathfinders attacked Gen Rommel in his jeep on a road in Normandy, thus taking both generals out of the war.
Mike Stevens says
The irony is that despite all the hatred for “infidels”, Jews and Christians, and the US in particular, the biggest threat to Iran is in fact from… other Muslims! Sunni majority countries like Saudi Arabia would happily see Shia Iran wiped off the map.
So much for the “ummah”, the supposed worldwide Muslim solidarity. People who have been fighting and killing each other for 1400 years over a religious disagreement in the 7th century will never build stable, democratic societies like those in the civilised world.
gravenimage says
Muslims love murdering other Muslims, who are either deemed “heretics” or “insufficiently Islamic” That doesn’t mean, of course, that the victims hate civilized Infidels any the less.
gravenimage says
Iran’s Quds Force worked to set up jihad terror cells in Central Africa to strike Western, Israeli and Saudi targets
………………
This should surprise no one.
don vito says
“According to Djidah, the training was provided by individuals from Quds Force and Hezbollah, among others.” I wonder if there was any obama money involved in the training?
Battle says
How much Obama money has been used to kill Christians in Chad, Kenya, Nigeria etc?