TEHRAN - Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), has said in a tweet that there are commonalities between assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and the United States’ claim of attack on the Taji military camp hosting U.S. and British troops in Iraq.

“It seems that there are commonalities between implementation of the assassination plan and the United States’ claim about missile attack on al-Taji base in Baghdad,” Shamkhani wrote on his Twitter page. 

The Pentagon used a deadly attack on a U.S. contractor on Iraq’s Kurdistan on December 27, 2019 as a pretext to attack Hashd al-Shaabi (The Popular Mobilization Forces), killing dozens of Kataib Hezbollah forces. Also, on January 3, the U.S. assassinated General Soleimani, Iran’s legendary commander in the war against Daesh (ISIL), under the excuse that the group was taking orders from Soleimani. 

This took place despite the fact that the killing on the U.S. contractor was a modus operandi of Daesh. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also grilled by Democrats on a House panel over the killing of Soleimani.
  
Shamkhani said, “During my visit to Iraq, I asked this country’s officials to identify and introduce internal elements behind assassination of Martyr Soleimani and Abu Mahdi [al-Muhandis].”

NA/PA