Iran's Intelligence Foils Plot to Assassinate IRGC Unit Head Soleimani - Report

The intelligence unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced foiling an assassination attempt against Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, last month.

Soleimani commands the IRGC’s Quds Force. He topped Foreign Policy (FP)’s 2019 list of Global Thinkers in the defense and security field.

“The IRGC intelligence thwarted an attempt by a group of terrorists to organize an explosion in Kerman province, the location that Soleimani was due to attend during Yom Ashura mourning day in early September,” Hossein Taeb, IRGC Intelligence Organization head, was quoted as saying by Press TV on Thursday.

The “group of terrorists” reportedly intended to plant 350-500 kilograms (770-1,100 Pounds) of explosives beneath the venue Soleimani would attend and blow up the site after his arrival.

Taeb said the suspects "went to a neighbouring country" and "large sums of money were spent to train and prepare them" to carry out the attack.

“The attempted assassination was plotted for several years by Arab-Jewish intelligence services. It was aimed at starting a religious war. Members of the terrorist group have now been detained,” Taeb added. He however did not name the Arab countries allegedly involved in the plan. 

The senior IRGC commander reportedly led Iranian military advisers backing the national armies of Syria and Iraq in their fight against terror groups, many of which had the backing of the Israeli regime and certain Persian Gulf Arab regimes. And in Lebanon’s victory against Israeli forces in 2006, Soleimani is said to have played an important part, according to a 629-page Winograd Report by the Israeli regime itself.

In November 2018, The New York Times revealed a March 2017 meeting in Riyadh to assassinate Iranian officials, namely General Soleimani, according to the Press TV report.