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In January 2020, readers asked us about viral Facebook posts that offered a particularly poignant perspective in the U.S. on the U.S.-ordered assassination of Major General Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran's elite clandestine Quds Force. On Jan. 3, the following message was posted to Facebook: That message was promulgated even further when it was re-posted by another user. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, sufficient evidence and intelligence exists to conclude that the January 2007 attack in Karbala, Iraq, which killed five U.S. service members including Freeman, was one of several that was directed, planned, and funded by the Quds Force — an elite branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Soleimani was head of that force until his death on Jan. 2, 2020. So the key claim made in the Facebook posts shared so widely in January — that Soleimani, as senior leader of the Quds Force, was responsible for the death of Freeman — reflects the official position and conclusion of the U.S. government. However, both the Iranian government and Soleimani himself have denied any Quds Force involvement in attacks perpetrated against U.S. forces in Iraq at that time of Freeman's death. We asked the Department of Defense (DOD) if it could provide evidence that would demonstrate the role of the Quds Force, and Soleimani in particular, in the planning or ordering of the attack, but we received no response. The claim that Soleimani was, at least in part, responsible for the death of Freeman and four others in the January 2007 attack appears quite plausible. However, evidence that would definitively demonstrate that responsibility is not publicly available, and as a result, we are issuing a rating of Unproven. If we obtain such evidence, we will update this fact check accordingly. Freeman was assigned to the 412th Civil Affairs Battalion and was attending meetings at the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala, on Jan. 20, 2007. Around 5 p.m. local time that day, insurgents wearing U.S.-style military uniforms attacked the compound. Here's how DOD described the attack, a week later: The five U.S. service members listed as killed in the attack were: Due to the relative sophistication of the attack, U.S. military officials quickly suspected Iranian involvement in its planning. By July 2007, DOD had come to the conclusion that the Karbala attack was indeed one of several carried out against U.S. and Coalition forces in Iraq, which had been planned and directed by Iran, specifically by senior leadership of the Quds Force. At that time, Soleimani was the head of the Quds Force. Here's how the Department of Defense described that Iranian involvement in a July 2007 statement: Of greatest relevance to this fact check, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said two men prominently involved in the series of attacks, including the Karbala attack — Ali Musa Daqduq and Qayis Khazali — had themselves not only acknowledged the role of the Quds Force in planning and funding the Karbala attack, but said Iran's assistance was essential to its execution. This would certainly appear to lend credibility to the claim, in widely shared Facebook posts, that the forces that killed Freeman were commanded by Soleimani, though it seems more likely they were trained and commanded by others, as part of a broader strategy overseen and directed by Soleimani, on behalf of the Iranian government. However, definitive proof of Quds Force and Soleimani involvement in the Karbala attack is not publicly available. We asked DOD to provide any evidence, potentially including correspondence or statements made by participants such as Daqduq or Khazali, that would corroborate and support the official U.S. position on responsibility for the Karbala attack. Unfortunately, we did not receive a response. Furthermore, both the Iranian government and Soleimani himself denied being responsible for attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. After Bergner's July 2007 briefing, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson rejected allegations of Iranian involvement, in general, non-specific terms, saying: American leaders have gotten into the habit of issuing ridiculous and false statements without providing evidence, with political and psychological aims. The country's defense minister, Mohammad Najar, also reportedly denied Iranian military interference in Iraq. In 2007, shortly after the Karbala attack, then-U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad sent a diplomatic cable in which he recounted a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. According to Khalilzad, Talabani had met with Soleimani in Syria, and the Quds Force leader had assured the president he was not directing attacks on American troops in Iraq, reportedly saying: I swear on the grave of Khomeini I haven't authorized a bullet against the U.S. Those denials should be viewed with an appropriate degree of skepticism, but they must be noted. The Iranian denials, combined with the absence of publicly available evidence that definitively demonstrates Iranian, Quds Force, or Soleimani responsibility for the Jan. 20, 2007, attack that killed Freeman and four other Americans in Karbala, means we are, for now, issuing a rating of Unproven.
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