SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force Esmail al-Qaani arrived in Baghdad late on Sunday, one day after a drone attack on the residence of the Iraqi prime minister.
Shafaq News cited a source as saying that Qaani held meetings with the leaders of Shia parties upon his arrival to Baghdad.
Kadhimi escaped unharmed in what Iraqi military said an “assassination attempt” by armed drone on his residence in Baghdad.
Three drones were used in the attack, including two that were intercepted and downed by security forces while a third drone hit the residence, according to the Iraqi interior ministry.
The Iraqi military said several members of Kadhimi’s personnel protection force stationed outside his residence in the Green Zone were wounded.
Iraqi President Barham Salih condemned the attack as a heinous crime against Iraq.
“We cannot accept that Iraq will be dragged into chaos and a coup against its constitutional system,” he said in a tweet.
Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose party was the biggest winner in last month’s election, called the attack a terrorist act against Iraq’s stability that aimed to “return Iraq to a state of chaos to be controlled by non-state forces”.
The United States, UK, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran as well as other Arab countries, Egypt and Lebanon condemned the attack.
