Hawzah News Agency (Baghdad - Iraq) - The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group has intensified its attacks in Iraq and Syria following the United States’ assassination of Iran’s top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, residents and monitors say.
The Associated Press (AP) said in an analysis on Tuesday that Daesh “clearly gained at least temporary breathing room” after tensions between Iran and the US escalated in the aftermath of the martyrdom of Lt. Gen. Soleimani, who was the most prominent military thinker in the regional fight against Daesh.
The US assassinated General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), on January 3. The strike that killed General Soleimani also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and a group of their companions in Baghdad. The operation was conducted on the direction of US President Donald Trump.
Both commanders enjoyed deep reverence among Muslim nations over their endeavors in ending Daesh’s territorial rule in Iraq and Syria.
In retaliation, the IRGC fired volleys of ballistic missiles at Ain al-Assad air base in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, which housed US forces, and another US-run base on January 8. The Pentagon announced days later that 34 troopers had received traumatic brain injuries in the attack on Ain al-Assad.