Iranian General Qassem Soleimani had instructed his top ally in Iraq, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, to step up attacks on Americans in a secret meeting in Iraq in October, according to Reuters. The plans discussed at the meeting coincided with growing protests in Iraq against Iran’s influence and were likely designed in part as a deterrent to those protests by uniting both countries against the U.S., according to the Reuters report. The U.S. intelligence community also reportedly knew of a “late stage” plan to attack Americans for which Soleimani had supplied advanced weaponry to the militia group Kataib Hezbollah, according to a U.S. official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. The plan included the use of sophisticated new weapons—including Katyusha rockets and shoulder-fired missiles that could bring down helicopters—that the Revolutionary Guards had moved to Iraq through two border crossings in the weeks before the October meeting.
