Yet, though he is owed no eulogies, Suleimani leaves a more complicated record than it might at first seem. Crocker later said in an interview that the Iranian negotiators were receiving their marching orders directly from Suleimani back in Tehran. Abdul Mahdi would run the names past Suleimani, and Crocker would drop candidates Suleimani objected to. Suleimani’s forces were training and equipping Iraqi Shia militia to attack U.S. troops and were inflicting an ever-higher death toll. Talks with Iraq on the issue went nowhere, however, and Americans continued to die because of Suleimani’s directives.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 04, 2020 01:41 UTC