The twin blasts which ripped open in Iran’s southern province of Kerman have left open wounds of those who were mourning the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian General who was seen as one of the most powerful figures in Iran and only second to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The blasts, which Iranian officials say are caused by “terrorist attacks”, hold a major symbolism as they took place on the same fateful day when Soleimani, a person who shaped the conflicts across the Middle East for years to come, including the rise of Iran-backed Houthi militia, the militant group which marked Soleimani’s death last year by erecting larger than life figures of the killed commander.
Soleimani led the al-Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the same force which was designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US.
The mighty Iranian general called the shots and kept the proxy militias across the Middle East at his fingertips, with one journalist suggesting that Soleimani “matters in death as much as in life.”
Proxy militia across Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon took command from Soleimani and acted upon it.
United States’ targeted drone strike at Baghdad International Airport in January 2020 killed IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani. Soleimani is believed to have killed US government officials, including Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Senator Elizabeth Warren.
The US government at the time justified the strike suggesting that Soleimani was actively planning imminent attacks on American interests in the Middle East and that the decision was framed as a preemptive defensive measure to protect US personnel.
Then US President Donald Trump, as the Commander-in-Chief, authorised the strike which eliminated Soleimani. Trump had said that the action was taken to ‘stop a war’. Iran at the UN likened the move to ‘opening a war.’
The airstrike prompted varied international reactions. Some nations expressed concern about the escalation of hostilities. The latest twin attack comes against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war and Iran-funded Houthi militia attacks on Red Sea shipping.
The death anniversary of the killed general also came at a time when the attacks on US bases in Iraq is becoming rampant, something that the US accused Soleimani of. US Department of Defence accused Soleimani of attack on allied bases in Iraq, including an air strike that resulted in the killing of a US contractor and injured as many as four service members, as per media reports.
Fight against ISIS
Iran’s most influential Soleimani was also known as the “Shadow Commander” and “Dark Knight”. He had a particular enmity with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and even as Iran and Iraq were archrivals, Soleimani held a significant clout in Baghdad.
He also lent his support to Lebanon’s Hezbollah as well as backed Syrian President Bashar Assad. Soleimani rose through the ranks in the Iranian military and even as US and Iran did not align, the countries did fight together against ISIS.
With this, Soleimani had his share of credit in the fight against the ISIS terror network. Reports quoting experts said that Soleimani’s killing thwarted these efforts to root out ISIS from the region and US’s move to kill the Iranian general was a win for ISIS.
(With inputs from agencies)
