Al Jazeera News :
An Iranian prosecutor has said a British security firm and an airbase in Germany had a hand in the assassination of Qassem Soleimani almost one year after the top general was assassinated by the United States in Iraq.
The allegations come amid mounting tensions between the two countries, as Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday accused outgoing US President Donald Trump of aiming to fabricate a “pretext for war”.
In a news conference on Wednesday, Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr claimed, without providing evidence, that London-based security services company G4S played a role in the killing of Soleimani, who was accompanied by Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and several others.
“Agents of this company handed the information of general Soleimani and his fellow fighters to the terrorists as soon as they entered the airport,” Alqasimehr said in reference to Baghdad International Airport, according to Mizan, the official news website of the judiciary.
Soleimani and his convoy were targeted shortly after leaving the airport by a US drone strike ordered by President Trump. The British company confirmed it was in charge of “a number of security requirements” outsourced by the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority at the time of the assassination, but denied the charges.
“In response to recent, completely unfounded speculation, G4S wishes to make clear that it had absolutely no involvement in the attack on Qassem Soleimani and Abu-Mahdi al-Muhandis which took place on 3rd January 2020,” a G4S spokesperson told Al Jazeera in a written statement.
The Tehran prosecutor also said a US airbase in Germany “handled reports on guiding the drone for the assassination and handed flight data of the drones to American forces”.
