On 3 January 2020 General Qassem Soleimani was brutally assassinated, with a specific targeted drone strike, in Bagdad, Iraq, by the United States. This was a terrible barbaric act of war on a great and high standing general, who was the driving force in eliminating the U.S. and Western-funded terrorist group ISIS (DAESH).

General Qassem Soleimani was a hero, especially in Syria, where he is always remembered as the hero of Al-Qusayr, a small Christian town 35 kilometers from Homs and 15 kilometers from the Lebanese border, in the Rif Dimashq area. A key town, where the Dutch priest Father Frans van der Lugt established his religious Al-Ard (the earth) center, for disabled and sick people. The Dutch priest was murdered by DAESH terrorists in April 2014 and his grave can be visited in Homs. Al-Qusayr town was strategically important because of the illegal weapons flow from Western countries, transported through Al-Qusayr in Syria. The small town is not far from the Lebanese border. General Soleimani appeared in many places and battles in Syria and was giving his support to Hezbollah and the Syrian Arab Army.

He was the strategic master of many battles against DAESH in Syria.

Also, he had a great reputation in Iraq, where ISIS conquered, with help of the U.S. and Western countries, large parts of the country, and established a so-called Caliphate. For many Iraqis, he was a hero, like in Syria. He managed to unite Kurds and Shia fighters in the battles against ISIS. He is most known (in Iraq) for his leading role in the battle of Jurf al-Sakhar, a strategic town 50 kilometers south of Baghdad. The town of Jurf al-Sakhar is important for Shia pilgrims; it’s the main road on their way to the holy town of Karbala. It was conquered by DAESH in 2014 and liberated in October 2014, thanks to the great effort of General Soleimani. According to many fighters, he was always present on the battlefield.

Because General Soleimani was too powerful, strategic mastermind, dangerous to the U.S. and its allies, and revealed the ugly face of Western interference in both Syria and Iraq, he had to be killed according to them. 

Afraid of losing control in both Syria and Iraq, the Zionist state of Israel urged on his assassination. The murder was in line of what the Obama Administration had started, the new way of killing by drones. President Obama secretly started his drone assassination program in 2008. A total of 563 strikes were carried out by drones; targets in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen during Obama’s two terms.  The Trump Administration continued these unlawful strikes, although not as many strikes as under Obama, and eventually from pressure of Israel, who sees Iran as its biggest threat and enemy, he gave orders to kill General Qassem Soleimani.

The U.S. and Israel have a long record of assassinating Iranian scientists and high-ranking Iranian officials, in and outside Iran. According to international law, it‘s prohibited to conduct killings, on foreign soil and is seen as an act of war.  But it’s not only the U.S. and Israel who are guilty, also European countries, who allow U.S. forces in Ramstein Airbase, Germany, to conduct their drone assassinations from there. It has been proven that the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy have played a significant role in supporting the U.S. lethal operations, including its drone program.

General Qassem Soleimani is seen as a hero in West Asia, Iran, Pakistan, and parts of Afghanistan. He stood up for the suppressed and fought tirelessly against the Western-funded ISIS group or DAESH as Arab people call them. The meaning of DAESH is simple, whatever the West calls them moderate or any name they will give the so-called opposition, for Syrians and Iraqis they are terrorists. General Soleimani helped them to crush DAESH. According to many Syrians and Iraqis, he was fearless, courageous, unselfish, and always present on the battlefield. He was an inspiration for his soldiers, who went for battle and knew their life was in God‘s (Allah) hand. He was, according to many witnesses, a tolerant, righteous, and religious man.

Leave us with a big problem, the Western approach to human rights and terrorism. For many years Western politicians and sponsored human rights groups (mainly by George Soros), are conducting heavy-style propaganda on their own citizens, to condemn Iran, Syria, and other countries who don‘t comply with their Western world view. Fuelled by Israel, who has its own aspirations in the region, a greater Israel, on the principles of the Yinon Plan, a plan published in February 1982. It has played a role in both conflict resolution analysis by scholars who regard it as having influenced the formulation of policies adopted by the American administration under George Bush Jr., who started the “war on terror” in 2001. The claim has been made that Yinon's article was adopted by members of the Institute for Zionist Strategies in the American administration to further American interests in West Asia, as well as achieving the Jewish dream of a state “from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates”. Their dream is to conquer the whole of the region.

The Western countries are dominated by the U.S. and Israeli-Zionist doctrine. Their ‘dirty’ war in Syria is a good example, resulting from the so-called Islamic Awaking, a plan to colonize West Asia, with as a tool the Western mercenaries, the Muslim Brotherhood, who later got all different names like Al-Qaeda, etc. The funding of ISIS in Camp Bucca, Iraq, and the making of Abu-Bakr-al-Baghdadi, some rumors have it he was a Mossad/CIA agent called Shimon Elliot, trained among ex-Iraqi officers in camp Bucca and the source for the radicalization of the ex-officers.  

The deceiving role of Western human rights groups like Amnesty which resulted in the inhumane CAESAR-act. Also, the Western media's role is lying about facts and not telling the truth. But Western media is a tool for politicians and not independent anymore. Western countries are under influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in politics and media, which in the end will be a big disaster for the Western world, as we know it. The politicians are just ‘puppet-on-a-string’ concerning their foreign policy-making; the real power is not in their hands.

*Sonja van den Ende is an independent journalist from the Netherlands. Her expertise includes international affairs with a special focus on Syria, West Asia, and Russia. She is the former international secretary at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA - Vienna).