[The Hill] U.S. forces launched a secret mission against a senior Iranian military official in Yemen the same day that the U.S. military killed a top Iranian commander in Iraq’s capitol, The Washington Post reported on Friday.
Four U.S. officials told the Post that the military executed a strike to target Abdul Reza Shahlai ‐ a Yemen-based financial backer and high-ranking member of Iran’s Quds Force
| Does that make him a Number 4, head of a technical specialty group but not in line for upper management? |
‐ but the unsuccessful mission did not kill him.
| Bummer. Better luck next time, guys — is it easier or harder when they’re spooked? |
The effort came the same day that the Trump administration went ahead with the drone strike to kill Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds.
Administration officials have since defended the move ‐ which has ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Tehran ‐ saying intelligence suggested that Soleimani was plotting a "large-scale" attack that threatened U.S. Embassies, among other American facilities.
The missions, when shown together, appear to reflect a larger operation from the administration on the Iran regime than previously disclosed.
U.S. officials would not offer many details on the strike against Shahlai other than the mission remains highly classified, that it was authorized around the same time that Soleimani’s was, and that it was not successful.
"If we had killed him, we’d be bragging about it that same night," a senior U.S. official told the Post.
| Why did the unnamed senior gentleperson say anything at all? |
The State Department in early December offered up to $15 million for information on the financial activities, networks and associates of Shahlai, who is accused of directing attacks against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, providing weapons and explosives to violent Shiite groups, and planning the 2007 attack against U.S. forces in Karbala, Iraq, that killed five service members and wounded others.
Shahlai was also identified as the mastermind and financier behind a 2011 plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. at a restaurant in Washington, D.C. The plot was disrupted with the arrest of the man hired to carry out the assassination.
"We have seen the report of a January 2 airstrike in Yemen, which is long-understood as a safe space for terrorists and other adversaries to the United States," Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told Fox News. "The Department of Defense does not discuss alleged operations in the region." |