Iran’s Quds Force worked to set up jihad terror cells in Central Africa to strike Western, Israeli and Saudi targets
TERRORIST
Qassem Soleimani headed up the Quds Force for 22 years. He wasn’t exactly the Gandhiesque martyr to Trump’s madness that the Western media has portrayed him to be.
“Iran’s Quds Force aimed to launch terror groups in Africa, UN hears,” by Donna Rachel Edmunds, Jerusalem Post, January 17, 2020:
Iran’s Quds Force attempted to set up terror cells in Central Africa to strike Western, Israeli and Saudi targets, UN reporters have heard.
On April 19, a television report was broadcast on an international news channel carrying footage of Ismael Djidah, an ex-Séléka member, who had been arrested in Chad. “We want to create an army to fight against Westerners in Africa,” he was filmed as saying.
Séléka is an alliance of rebel militia groups of mostly Muslim membership who in March 2013 staged a coup of the Central African Republic and installed their leader, Michel Djotodia as the nation’s president. He remained in place until his resignation in January 2014. The group, meanwhile, was officially dissolved in September 2013, when the remaining rebel groups became known as ex-Séléka.
The footage was self incriminating. In a longer version obtained by a UN panel of experts for an official report on the Central African Republic, he revealed that, upon instruction from former Central African Republic president Michael Djotodia and with the support of Iran’s IRGC Quds Force, Djidah had set up an armed group named ‘Saraya Zahraa’ to wage violence against Western, Israeli and Saudi interests in Africa.
His intention was to create a force comprising 200 – 300 armed men, operating in coordination with other armed groups from Chad and Sudan. Djidah travelled to Iran, Lebanon and Iraq, and on each trip met with Quds Forces representatives who handed him sums of between $12,000 and $20,000. Between 30 and 40 others, who Djidah claimed were recruited from the ranks of ex-Séléka, also travelled to Lebanon, Iraq and Syria in 2017 and 2018 to take part in training, including in the use of firearms.
According to Djidah, the training was provided by individuals from Quds Force and Hezbollah, among others.
Aiming to corroborate the testimony, the UN panel gathered evidence confirming that Djidah did travel to Lebanon in March, July, September and December 2017, and again in February – March and July 2018. the United Arab Emirates confirmed to the panel in October 2019 that Djidah travelled from Dubai to Kish Island in Iran and back again in December 2016, staying for just one night. And a visa was found granting him permission to enter Iraq in October 2018….
