A top White House adviser on Iran said that the killing of Qassem Soleimani prevented the deaths of “hundreds of Americans.”
U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, 51, said on Thursday that the United States moved forward with a targeted drone strike on the Iranian leader of the Quds Force because of “very solid” intelligence that he was planning to kill American diplomats and soldiers.
“Our intelligence community over the last many days has been receiving very solid intelligence that Soleimani was planning attacks against American diplomats and American soldiers that could have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Americans,” Hook said on BBC. “And so, our action was taken to prevent the imminent loss of American lives.”
He said the death of Soleimani, 62, was “long overdue” and pointed out that the general was behind the killing of more than 600 American soldiers in Iraq.
“Gen. Soleimani was the architect of nearly every significant terrorist operation by Iran over the past 20 years, and his death is a huge blow for the regime,” Hook said, saying that the Iranian military commander was “plotting to kill hundreds more.”
“Any nation that takes its responsibility to protect its citizens seriously had to act decisively,” he added.
Soleimani’s death came after a violent attack by Iranian-backed protesters at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The U.S. also killed Mahdi al Muhandis, leader of the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces.
