Who perhaps met him at the airport their vehicle or vehicles were targeted along with several other people they lost their lives it was the parts of the airport compound that is separated from a Counterterrorism Center literally by a wall what youre looking at right now took place according to the reports that weve got that we are trusting within about a kilometer of the airport the gentleman that were the key gentleman that were talking about so the money was very very significant he fought in the 8 year long iran iraq war he managed to survive the flow the changes of iranian politics hes only ever given he had only ever given one interview in his life very quiet very much off the radar but incredibly well connected with the ayatollah how many thats the top line on whats happening of course the immediate back story is the way that the hezbollah militia was allowed 3 days ago to walk with impunity rights up to the front door of the Iraqi Embassy compound in the iraqi capital that is a touchstone issue. For the u. S. Administration has got full of course with what happens to u. S. Embassies across the middle east you only have to go back 40 years you dont have to go further back than that of course to begin to remember those scenes of what happened at the u. S. Embassy in the iranian capital in tehran a round about the transition from the Jimmy Carter Administration in washington into the 1st administration of Ronald Reagan a republican president Ronald Reagan so youre right up to date with what we know lets talk to george about a correspondent in tehran im assuming no official reaction there but we have got this confirmation that these 2 individuals are now dead so while they have not had any reaction or any confirmation from any ringing official. Just yet about this event. I believe. This is true true control and the only person that would be qualified to confirm that on the iranian time would be the Supreme Leader himself. To given his relationship with thousands of them on. The one that were there now and the passing. Of him in iraq now this is something that will come as an extreme shock not only to the officials but to millions of iranians that will be waking up in the next few hours to the. Gods of the morning not just an ordinary commander who had to do external. Sources external and missions securing your own interest in this region to learning through him is a very much a hero a. Somebody who is very quiet very media reserved and many people have had their story about him just float around every once in a while and about people that have my home on flights and such things even though i didnt mind you know ive been working in iran over the past 10 years i have never seen him in person there is no single event where foreign media has been allowed for security and so very few people have seen him close. In iran has a very Small Network does he travels with them theres some places even in china iran. Was believed to have a number of security measures in place including. You know various different people that they can use this because when we travel even with the wrong so this will be a very very huge surprise to most people. And they will lose if its confirmed why do you remove the will really bring into question the iraq intelligence role and all the ok dosa can we just unpack the backstory here a little bit because some of intimate in fact that making the point that you know weve had weeks and weeks and weeks of protests weve had allegations of rampant corruption weve had allegations of iranian influence and is that. In point into discussing the money as an individual has provenance and what he brought to the table in iraq because people were protesting against iranian influence and yet people who support his militia were protesting against the United States 2 days ago at the u. S. Embassy compound. In baghdad and the fact that he was in baghdad when he lost his life that is perhaps i guess in one sense a very accurate measure of how much iranian influence there is in iraq squaring off against what its critics would say is a quite weak government in baghdad. Yes certainly i think his presence in iraq has been a. Regular occurrence as i say in. 2004 to 2013 i would say. When we then prior actually Prime MinisterNouri Al Maliki requests that they help of their own to actual and us until the money answered the call very quickly since then the relationship has little to choose between the 2 sides there been much much closer and i wouldnt d just last week or month and his name is synonymous with anything else to hear him back that. And there is a sense that his presence was. Welcomed and. Despised you know there are both sides to got present in iraq it depends depends on who you ask really but. The equation and the sea in baghdad is an important point to mention because that is where he would normally stay you know for his own security he would not to be traveling freely around the city. And the embassy in baghdad is one of the only the only a number to see in the walls and that is. The ambassador 0 from the revolutionary guard bringing a basket or in iraq and not from the Foreign Ministry this is a very suspicious dissipate exemption because of the security situation in iraq even you decided that this particular embassy has to be staffed by a revolutionary guard commander and this is why. Im so long he was a frequent visitor to that location because his own people were working in the embassy so his relationship with the Iraqi Government there. Because i spoke to somebody from the in the president s office far from fallen who are told me just over a week ago that the pardon for the one who was a frequent visitor to the southwest in baghdad so it was present in the rock and not something of a surprise or. I am its not really nothing new but given the current climate that iraq trying to pop in i think there would be questions about whether or not it was our movement how much they were monitored and. Upon trouble for the events that took place that morning as the demonstrations began to spread around various big cities outside of baghdad that we saw and we saw that happened or supply haps for 56 weeks ago it became clear that the government was was hemorrhaging Political Capital because it wasnt addressing the issues offset that against these regular meetings between that. And the Iraqi Government and when it comes to that axis relationship who was in charge of that i mean who had more power some guy from tehran whos in baghdad or the government of iraq. Well i think it wasnt just somebody from another recording i think the money was a figure larger than one his own name really and when it came to his intro and not only in iraq but also a number and syria as well another town i seem compares a strategic importance to his presence in iraq and i think even the government. Recognized that and. Knowledge has influence openly but i think there will be discussions and approaches that we saw was a result of the fact that there needs to be some boundaries when it comes to tehran to each side and i think this is a point that we will see on the take place between the demonstrators on the streets of baghdad and then various visits by so they want in iraq there is a new. There is a sense that he has a very large influence in iraq politics but i. D. M. Today iran insists that it was a sovereign country they are in charge of their own government they are wrong and not meddling in iraq affairs and other than at the invitation of the Iraqi Government telling on one. Thing there is official that was the extent officially of his involvement in iraq. Well talk to you later in the meantime thank you al jazeera sullivan jabez has been keeping us right across old Big Developments on this evolving story over the past 45 a half 6 hours now osama i guess there will be multiple investigations multiple inquiries and multiple claims and counterclaims now. Absolutely i think it is quite interesting to retrace the steps in the beginning of this night as we started hearing this alleged drunk at the tact we kept hearing from witnesses that there was a very heavy presence in the air which what witnesses thought was u. S. Helicopters so we need 9 to wait and see on when the u. S. Declared then it releases information about the modus operandi of how this operation was carried out what kind of equipment was used but those were early indications that there was there was some sort of u. S. Presence involved but now that weve had confirmation from the rocky state t. V. And the Popular Mobilization forces that it was indeed the 2 leaders who had arrived in baghdad and were being taken by the head of political and their big head in a very precise manner as the next year for between 2 checkpoints where there was there was no possibility of any of the Collateral Damage you would imagine and that is something that i presume that will come from the american side has been done this not meeting the details of how this operation is going to if indeed it was the u. S. Forces we have to stress that this allegation of it being an american or an Israeli Attack is coming from the Popular Mobilization forces it actually puts the Iraqi Government in a very very difficult position they will be have they will have to answer to iran and how was this information leaked about the movement of the 2nd highest ranking person in iran hes awesome still in money was. Probably the 2nd. In the harmony and also maybe in the hundreds who was the 2nd in command of the Popular Mobilization forces whose rudiments kept a really tight secret to his movement that never revealed to anyone but a but a very select few so that they would have to. Do it on them not intentionally the Popular Mobilization forces have told the Iraqi Government essentially they have given them notice. That theyre only withdrawing from the u. S. Embassy until the time that they go up and legislation which forces out all 4 groups quite the contrary off what the u. S. Is doing by sending more troops so they will have to unsub internally to these militias and on top of that you have to bear in mind that this is an interim government this is a government which was forced out by months and months of protests for being in the fashion for failing to resolve the issue of and demick corruption in the rug for failing to provide jobs to young people to failing or failing to improve the Health System or the Education System this is the government which has resigned and is over do you agree to place by another government this is a government which cannot even pass the budget at the moment the Current Situation in their office is that the time period for the fiscal budget to spot and it does not even have a budget to run the government it is going to be a very tough period for the iraqi leadership to come out and that is all before we go to the point of what the reaction for this assassination is going to look like with these killings is going to have replications across the middle east process in the money his image was curated by Iranian Forces the somebody would larger than life somebody would walk into a battlefield and then which is which is extraordinary because for the puts force before them i need to i dont think there is any precedent that any cmon that was given such prominence such bravado that he would be his pictures and his videos and his speeches to his troops would be released after he he goes into those funds of whether they were in lebanon but that they would say they have other women in iraq and there have been some analysts of tied him to the who pees in yemen is that ok so this is this is going to be. A very difficult period for the government in iraq and then the u. S. Forces because theyre stationed across the middle east because viewed the United States has been trying to crush the middle east the battle i did to be on very close watch in the next day the no its ok osama thanks very much lets talk now to joan hes a Principal Research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Way hes worked on iraq and iran u. S. Relations he joins us from boston mr tim and welcome to aljazeera your reaction to this developing story. Well certainly a very Big Development theres no question about that as your other guests have been pointing out so in money was a very big hero in iran and i think were going to see the next few days large demonstrations the whole martyrdom. Thing that run ins participate in for ceremonial purposes. And you know a great deal of grief i think actually genuine grief among the iranian people in the in the government. The larger picture what is going to happen on the ground in terms of military of armed violence difficult to predict but certainly iran is going to retaliate and some way of retaliations will come as they have in the past in what we call an asymmetrical way theyre not going to confront the United States directly but they will perhaps attack saudi. Tankers again maybe Saudi Oil Refineries again. Things around the region where american troops are as they as this militia did the other day so thats really in my mind thats the big question is are we are we entering a period now of escalation between the United States and iran and how is that going to look is there a chance here that in the past during the fight against eisel the United States in effect would it with money in as much as if youve got multiple militias who employ this revolving door policy of loyalty and provenance and what they want the next dynamic to be clearly the u. S. Government has worked with the Iraqi Government whove worked very productively very well with some of those militias on the ground in certain parts of iraq to get rid of isobel and this this man was a constructive part in that fight as well and theres no question about that the the the level of cooperation is is kind of murky but it was widely believed that there was cooperation indirect perhaps. And he played a very large role in in fighting isis and essentially defeating them the. Fact is however that he has a record of also killing american soldiers during the Us Occupation of iraq however one feels about that there are about a 1000 deaths 3rd are attributed to iranian mischief in iraq and thats something that one has to keep in mind as well some people are saying this is as significant as the death of Osama Bin Laden if only because ok i mean those 2 as individuals diametrically opposed in terms of what they would wont i guess because so the money is all about provenance and about spreading an agenda i guess that would be an overly simplistic way of describing him but maybe its accurate is it that big of a deal well it isnt in terms of symbolism i mean the killing of Osama Bin Laden was i think a bigger deal simply because of the you know the prominence that he held for so many years in the United States in the west. An earlier guest of yours said that he was an operational at the time of his death that may be true but but the fact is that you know he loomed larger than life as well so money is a fighter. It was a fighter and he had a very profound effect on you know in syria in lebanon in iraq and elsewhere and in that sense yes he is hes a big a big number to go down there will be somebody who replaces him and that person will probably carry out similar kinds of operations so its a little its a little bit of apples and oranges but i think that for americans anyway the symbolism of us and some of bin laden being being assassinated by navy seals in his own home. Is theres a larger theres a larger thing ok we must leave it there joan to yemen there in boston thank you very much for your insight and your your take on this evolving story thank you lets go back to washington and our correspondent there Gabriel Elizondo gapes so its moving pretty fast now what else do we know. Still radio silence out of the pentagon from the white house and state department absolutely no communications from any official channels out of any of those 3 areas. There are unconfirmed reports that the pentagon is waiting until there is d. N. A. Confirmation that they get on the ground before making any sort of announcements again thats unconfirmed no official channels or are doing this weve reached out to the pentagon on multiple levels multiple times but it is absolutely silent read into that what you want but clearly this if it turns out to be true would probably reckon it would mean an announcement from the president of the United States donald trump hes still at his mara lago resort in florida again nothing out of the white house and i should mention there was no hint that anything such as this was in the works either in any official washington channels at least that leaked anywhere publicly this is coming as as big of a surprise to everyone in washington as it is probably to the rest of the world right now peter ok cable come back to us and when there are more developments thanks so much less till he gets to Lawrence Korb fully u. S. Assistant secretary of defense he joins us on skype from washington larry called welcome back to aljazeera will this be seen as a targeted assassination in tehran well i have no doubt about it i mean the fact of the matter is that this was not done for example on the battlefield