Trump recounts minute-by-minute details of air raid killing General Soleimani

Recounting Iranian General Qassem Soleimani’s killing, President Donald Trump said he was saying “bad things about our country” before the strike, which led to the decision of authorising his killing.

Trump has recounted minute-by-minute details of the air raid that killed Iranian General earlier this month.

The US President recounted the details during remarks to Republican donors at his South Florida estate on Friday evening, reported CNN.

The US carried out a strike near Baghdad’s international airport killing Soleimani, a US-designated terrorist, along with six others on the direction of President Trump earlier this month.

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According to audio obtained by CNN, the US President described the sequence of events as Soleimani arrived at Baghdad International Airport and recalled listening to military officials as they watched the air raid from “cameras that are miles in the sky.”

“They’re together sir. Sir, they have two minutes and 11 seconds. No emotion. ‘2 minutes and 11 seconds to live, sir. They’re in the car, they’re in an armoured vehicle. Sir, they have approximately one minute to live, sir. 30 seconds. 10, 9, 8 …’,” Trump recalled the military officials as saying.

“Then all of a sudden, boom,” he said. “They’re gone, sir. Cutting off.”

“I said, where is this guy?” Trump continued. “That was the last I heard from him.”

Soleimani’s killing led to a dramatic escalation of tension between the US and Iran which was already strained after Washington exited from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, in 2018.

Iranian forces responded with a barrage of missiles aimed at two Iraqi bases housing US troops, though the strikes caused minimal damage and no casualties.

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The US President also recounted about the strike that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi and joked that the dog Conan, which took part in the raid got more credit than he did.

“The dog Conan became very famous,” he said.

(With inputs from agencies.)