Dec. 21, 2021 9:53 pm
In an interview, a former intelligence chief of the Israeli military, Tamir Hayman, admits a role Israel played in the targeted killing of Iranian commander-in-chief Qassem Soleimani in 2020. The assassination was a “success,” said Hayman.
Israel also played a major role in the murder of Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Unit, a subdivision of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (Army of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, IRGC) in January last year. This was confirmed by the former head of IDF military intelligence, Tamir Hayman.
In an interview with the magazine Eveningpublished by the Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center (IICC), the former major general said:
“Soleimani’s assassination is a success because, in my eyes, our main enemy is the Iranians.”
Soleimani, who was killed in a targeted assassination attempt by the United States of America last January, served as the commander of the Quds Unit, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. He was considered one of the most prominent and influential military in Iran. In the interview, Hayman continued:
“We have thwarted many ways in which they have tried to smuggle weapons and money, and the most important thing is to prevent the Iranians from holing up in Syria.”
Although Israel was rumored to have leaked information about Soleimani’s whereabouts to the United States in order to target him, it was the first time a senior Israeli military officer had confirmed Israel’s role in the operation. Officials of the Israeli armed forces have so far kept a low profile on the attack and merely stated that the killing would be a stabilizing event in the region for the near future, which would give Israel the opportunity to intensify its operations against Iranian positions.
In May it was reported that Israel leaked three of Soleimani’s cell phone numbers to the United States just hours before the drone attack outside Baghdad airport. The report, citing US military and intelligence officials, said Soleimani changed cell phones three times in the six hours before his flight from Damascus, but Israel was based out of Tel Aviv with liaison officers from the US Joint Special Operations Command tracked.
Not the first targeted kill
Hayman, who retired in October this year, said Soleimani’s assassination was one of “two significant and important murders [, die] recorded in my tenure “.
The other was the assassination of the leader of the Islamic Jihad Baha Abu al-Ata in the Gaza Strip on November 12, 2019 as part of Operation Black Belt. The operation, the Israeli account, took place to stop al-Ata, who was in the middle of planning a series of attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF forces, including preparations for sniper and kidnapping attacks, armed drone strikes and rocket fire all over Israel.
The targeted killing of al-Ata, which IDF Chief of Staff Lt. General Aviv Kochavi referred to as a “living ticking bomb”, resulted in Islamic Jihad launching rockets at Israeli communities.
more on the subject – US General McKenzie: Iran and Shiite militias want to oust the USA from the Middle East
