‘There Will Be Dead Americans’, Ex-CIA Official Says


TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Former acting and deputy CIA director Michael Morell said the US assassination of IRGC Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani will lead to "dead civilian Americans."

“...there will be dead Americans, dead civilian Americans, as a result of this. Possibly over the next few days in any place where Iran has its proxies, Iraq is the most likely place, but also Lebanon, Bahrain, other places in the Middle East,” Morell said, according to CBS News.

“At a time and place of their choosing, they’re going to conduct a strike that kills a senior American official,” Morell said. “And that could be anywhere in the world.”

Such an attack could occur on American soil soon, he said.

“So, yes it's good that (Soleimani's) gone, but it's come at an extraordinarily high price,” Morell said. “And that's why the Bush administration and the Obama administration chose not to do something like this.”

General Soleimani, the deputy head of Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi, and a number of their entourage were killed in a strike by American drones near Baghdad International Airport in the early hours of Friday.

The White House and the Pentagon confirmed the assassination of General Soleimani in Iraq, saying the attack was carried out at the direction of US President Donald Trump.

In a message on Friday morning, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei warned that harsh revenge awaits the criminals behind the martyrdom of General Soleimani.