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Reports: US Military Tried but Failed to Kill Iranian Commander in Yemen

VOA News

   PENTAGON - The airstrike that killed Iranian Quds Force
   commanderQassemSoleimani may have been part of a bigger campaign
   designed to cripple Tehran's elite military unit.

   U.S. officials confirmed Friday that the same day Soleimani was killed,
   a second airstrike attempted to take out the top Quds Force commander
   in Yemen.

   Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the airstrike
   targeting Abdul RezaShahlaiwas not successful, buttheydeclined to share
   additional details of the classified mission.

   The Pentagon declined to discuss the failed airstrike, first reported
   byThe Washington Post.

   "The Department of Defense does not discuss alleged operations in the
   region," Pentagon spokeswoman Navy Commander RebeccaRebarichsaid in a
   statement, which said Yemen "is longunderstood as a safe space for
   terrorists and other adversaries to the United States."

   Shahlai's record

   Shahlai, currently basedinSanaa, has a history of targeting U.S.
   forces.

   U.S. officials saidShahlaiwas the mastermind of a January 2007 attack
   in Karbala, Iraq, that killed five U.S. soldiers and wounded three
   others.

   The U.S. said he also directed and paid $5 million toward the plot to
   assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S. in a Washington
   cafe in 2011.

   The U.S. Treasury Department namedShahlaia Specially Designated Global
   Terrorist in 2008 and 2011.

   Shahlai'sname had been listed in connection with a $15 million reward
   under the [1]U.S. Rewards for Justice program seeking information
   leading to the disruption of Iranian terror financing.

References

   1. https://rewardsforjustice.net/english/irgc.html