U.S. Department of Defense on Killing Qasem Soleimani

At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. 

General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more. He had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months – including the attack on December 27th [2019] – culminating in the death and wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel. General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week.  

This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans. The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.

Nearly two years after this statement from the Department of Defense, former IDF Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Tamir Heyman revealed that Israel “gave intelligence that incriminated and proved the responsibility of Soleimani for killing Americans. The Americans’ view of him was radically altered after they saw the intelligence from us and the level of danger he [continued to] present to Americans.”

Sources: U.S. Department of Defense, (January 2, 2020).
Yonah Jeremy Bob, “Ex-IDF intel chief reveals more details on Israel's role in Soleimani killing,” Jerusalem Post, (August 31, 2022).