Iraqi MP: Domestic and foreign parties involved in Gen. Soleimani assassination

Salem, a member of the al-Sadiqoun bloc – the political wing of the anti-terror Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq resistance group in the Iraqi legislature, told Iraq’s Arabic-language al-Maalomah news agency on Saturday that lawmakers intend to reopen a file into the matter.

He added, “There are domestic and foreign parties involved in the crime, and the offenders hail from the United States, Lebanon, Syria, and even Iraq.”

“The blood of the martyrs is a debt to the entire nation. We will neither remain silent nor sit idly by in the face of the heinous crime committed by the United States. Washington perpetrated an unforgivable misdeed,” Salem stated.

He said Iraqi lawmakers will once again demand disclosure of results of an investigation into the targeted killing of Lt. Gen. Soleimani, Muhandis and their companions, in order to publicize the names of all those involved in the assassinations and hold them to account in accordance with the law.

Muhammad al-Baldawi, a member of the Fatah (Conquest) Alliance in the Iraqi parliament, also called on the Baghdad government and the judiciary to take serious measures and name all those responsible for the assassinations.

He stressed the time is ripe to bring the criminals to justice, especially as they do not hold a position in the government any more.

General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and their companions were assassinated in a US drone strike authorized by then President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

Two days after the attack, Iraqi lawmakers approved a bill that required the government to end the presence of all foreign military forces led by the US in the country.

Both commanders were highly revered across the Middle East because of their key role in fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.

On January 8, 2020, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeted the US-run Ain al-Asad base in Iraq’s western province of Anbar with a wave of missile attacks in retaliation for the assassination of Gen. Soleimani.

According to the Pentagon, more than 100 American forces suffered “traumatic brain injuries” during the counterstrike on the base. The IRGC, however, says Washington uses the term to mask the number of the Americans who perished during the retaliation.

Iran has described the missile attack on Ain al-Assad as a “first slap.”