{"id":11869,"date":"2021-12-21T21:35:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T21:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/12\/21\/israel-was-involved-in-us-drone-strike-that-killed-soleimani-ex-intel-chief-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:21:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:21:55","slug":"israel-was-involved-in-us-drone-strike-that-killed-soleimani-ex-intel-chief-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/flashpoints\/2021\/12\/21\/israel-was-involved-in-us-drone-strike-that-killed-soleimani-ex-intel-chief-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel was involved in US drone strike that killed Soleimani, ex-intel chief says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JERUSALEM \u2014 Israel\u2019s former military intelligence chief says the country was involved in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2020\/01\/03\/iran-leader-killed-in-strike-linked-to-years-of-attacks-killing-of-more-than-1000-us-troops-during-iraq-war\/\" target=\"_blank\">American airstrike<\/a> that killed Iranian general <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2020\/01\/03\/iraq-rockets-fired-at-baghdad-airport-7-people-killed\/\" target=\"_blank\">Qassem Soleimani<\/a> in January 2020. It was the first public acknowledgement of Israel\u2019s role in the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Soleimani headed the Iranian Revolutionary Guard\u2019s elite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2020\/01\/05\/iran-says-its-response-to-killing-of-revered-quds-force-commander-will-be-against-military-sites\/\" target=\"_blank\">Quds Force<\/a> and helped orchestrate Iran\u2019s involvement with paramilitary groups abroad. He was killed in a U.S. drone strike at the Baghdad airport in January 2020, an incident that threatened to pull the countries into full-blown conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A week after the airstrike,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/mideast\/airport-informants-overhead-drones-how-u-s-killed-soleimani-n1113726\">NBC News<\/a>&nbsp;reported that Israeli intelligence helped confirm the details of Soleimani\u2019s flight from Damascus to Baghdad. Earlier this year, a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/conspiracy-is-hard-inside-the-trump-administrations-secret-plan-to-kill-qassem-soleimani-090058817.html?utm_source=newsletter&#038;utm_medium=email&#038;utm_campaign=newsletter_axiostelaviv&#038;stream=world&#038;guccounter=1&#038;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYXhpb3MuY29tLw&#038;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHU8u6h6XFM23dG9lIMZo7UPhnY5NV9CLFCqXiq8KN4RsquFyMqeRFmMiYphOdx8m1MR5vTVdKjbk5oHDxDa7PwEA5OndtkuuqGBWdOeuMFGKdgq9Bn0-QzAZqjnYAVGmPLzMGW0f5h3f5upXmcd3yolQPgwXax2RRi2af0LjEfJ\">Yahoo News<\/a>&nbsp;reported that Israel \u201chad access to Soleimani\u2019s numbers\u201d and gave that intelligence to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Maj. Gen. Tamir Heyman, the now-retired general who headed military intelligence until October, appears to be the first official to confirm Israel\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Heyman\u2019s comments were published in the November issue of a Hebrew-language magazine closely affiliated with Israel\u2019s intelligence services. The interview was held in late September, a couple weeks before his retirement from the military. The authors wrote that Heyman opened the interview by talking about the American airstrike that killed Soleimani, but in which Israeli intelligence played a part.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2021\/10\/20\/ig-to-study-how-doctors-centcom-handled-tbis-after-2020-al-asad-attack\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"232\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP20037725368128.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">IG to study how doctors, CENTCOM handled TBIs after 2020 al-Asad attack<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The latest evaluation \u201cwill delve deeper into some of the items we learned in the first project,&quot; officials said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAssassinating Soleimani was an an achievement, since our main enemy, in my eyes, are the Iranians,\u201d Heyman told the magazine. He said there were \u201ctwo significant and important assassinations during my term\u201d as head of army intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe first, as I\u2019ve already recalled, is that of Qassem Soleimani \u2014 it\u2019s rare to locate someone so senior, who is the architect of the fighting force, the strategist and the operator \u2014 it\u2019s rare,\u201d he said. Heyman called Soleimani \u201cthe engine of the train of Iranian entrenchment\u201d in neighboring Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in the past decade, but rarely publicly comments on them. Israel has said, however, that it has targeted bases of Iranian-backed force and arms shipments bound for Iran\u2019s proxy, the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Heyman said that Israeli strikes had succeeded in \u201cpreventing the attempt by Iran to put down roots in Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Heyman\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The interview was published as world powers and Iran were engaged in negotiations to reach a new agreement to curb Iran\u2019s nuclear program. The previous deal, struck in 2015, unraveled after the United States <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2018\/05\/08\/trump-says-hes-withdrawing-us-for-iran-nuclear-accord\/\" target=\"_blank\">unilaterally withdrew in 2018<\/a> and re-imposed crippling economic sanctions on Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Wednesday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was scheduled to meet this week in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to discuss \u201ca range of issues of strategic importance to the U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship, including the threat posed by Iran,\u201d National Security Council Spokesperson Emily Horne said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Israel considers Iran its regional arch-foe, and says it will take any steps needed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soleimani headed the Iranian Revolutionary Guard\u2019s elite Quds Force and helped orchestrate Iran\u2019s involvement with paramilitary groups abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,22,8,23,93,12,25],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1350],"class_list":["post-11869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-disaster","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"54S6AB4PNNAOTH6XINCJL47NQM","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2021\/12\/21\/israel-was-involved-in-us-drone-strike-that-killed-soleimani-ex-intel-chief-says\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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