Washington: The United States forces made a failed attempt to kill an Iranian military official in Yemen on the same day the commander of Iran’s Quds forces, General Qassem Soleimani was assassinated in an airstrike by Washington.
The Washington Post reported citing four US officials that the military executed a strike targeting Abdul Reza Shahlai a Yemen-based financial backer and high-ranking member of Iran’s Quds Force. However, the mission was failed.
Last week, Soleimani, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of an Iraqi Shia militia group, was among those killed in the US drone attack near the Baghdad International Airport. The attack on Soleimani comes in the backdrop of the attack on the US embassy in Baghdad by Shiite protesters after airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.
Officials said that the attacks on the Iranian military officials were carried out after intelligence suggested that Soleimani was plotting a “large-scale” attack that threatened U.S. embassies, among other American facilities.
U.S. officials would not offer many details on the strike against Shahlai other than the mission remains highly classified.
The State Department in December offered upto USD 15 million for information on the financial activities, networks and associates of Shahlai.
He is accused of directing attacks against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, providing weapons and explosives to violent Shi’a groups, and planning the 2007 attack against U.S. forces in Karbala, Iraq, that killed five service members and wounded others.