The wife of an American soldier killed by an improvised explosive device linked to Iran said she was relieved to hear that the United States killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Kelli Hake said Monday on CNN that she felt a bit of closure after she heard about the Iranian military commander’s death.
“A little bit of relief, knowing that he couldn’t hurt anyone else,” Hake said. “It kind of felt like a burden off my chest that he was gone, and I didn’t really have to worry so much, you know. It was just like a burden off my chest.”
Hake’s husband, Staff Sgt. Christopher Hake, was killed by an IED in March 2008. The device that killed him was an explosively formed penetrator bomb, which is designed to bore into vehicles by blasting out a slug of molten metal. The bomb that killed her husband was provided to Shiite militias in Iraq by Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, led at the time by Soleimani.
Hake is now one of more than 300 veterans and family members who have filed a lawsuit against Iran for the attacks under a provision that allows Americans to file for damages against other countries for injuries or deaths tied to terrorism.
Hake said she hopes the lawsuit will bring visibility to and “make public” the atrocities that Iran has committed through its proxy and affiliate militia groups in the region.
“I want the American people to understand that Iran had a part in killing my husband, who was an American soldier,” she said.
Soleimani, 62, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. A top White House adviser said the strike against Soleimani prevented the deaths of “hundreds of Americans.”
