The 62-year-old general’s importance to the Iranian regime is hard to overstate. As long-time commander of the Quds force, the elite external security force of the Revolutionary Guards, Suleimani led Iran’s military activities across the Middle East and beyond. He was instrumental in the regime’s military operations, assassinations and unconventional warfare, directly and through its many proxies, in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. The Trump administration said it had killed Suleimani because it was aware that he was planning attacks against American interests. That doesn’t explain the timing; Suleimani has been plotting such attacks for almost two decades.

Source: The Irish Times January 05, 2020 19:30 UTC