The plane carrying General Qassem Soleimani did not appear at Baghdad airport on the night of January 2 as planned, causing the US special task force to become worried.

According to the plan, flight 6Q501 of Cham Wings Airlines must take off from Damascus Airport, Syria at 19:30 on January 2 to reach Baghdad, Iraq. But that evening, a special agent at the Syrian capital airport said it had not yet taken off and the target had not yet appeared.

A few hours passed, and some US special forces involved in the killings wondered if they should cancel the mission. But just before the plane door closed, a convoy ran to the runway. Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds task force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and two escorts on board. Flight 6Q501 took off three hours later than scheduled.

The plane landed at Baghdad International Airport at 3:36 am on January 3 and the first person to get off the plane was Soleimani and his entourage. Waiting at the runway was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of pro-Iranian Iraqi militias.

The two cars took them off the runway, while the US MQ-9 Reaper drones followed. US special forces sat in the stalking vehicle at a distance of one kilometer.

At 07:47, the Reaper flew several Hellfire missiles into two cars, engulfing them in flames and leaving 10 bodies inside.

The campaign to kill Generalimimimani pushed the US and Iran closer to the crater of war than ever before and brought the world into 7 days of instability. The story of the seven days and the secret process planned in the previous months is considered to be the most dangerous chapter of the three years in power of US President Donald Trump.

Nearly 70 years of US-Iran hostility. Click on the image to see the beginning.

For years, Iran financed proxy militias in Iraq and many Middle East countries, competing directly for influence with the US. Starting last fall, pro-Iranian Iraqi militants launched rockets at Iraqi bases with US troops stationed. The attacks did not cause much damage but mainly to reduce the morale of the soldiers.

So when rockets hit K1 military base near Kirkuk on December 27, 2019, one American civil contractor was killed and many others injured, the only surprise was the casualties. In the previous few months, pro-Iranian Kataib Hezbollah group has made at least five rocket attacks on Iraqi military bases without causing human damage.

US intelligence officials following Kataib Hezbollah and IRGC contacts said Iran wanted to pressure the Americans but had no intention of escalating the conflict. Rocket usually falls where US and Iraqi soldiers are not present. The US contractor's death seems to be beyond the expectations of Iraqi militia.

But that doesn't matter to Trump and his aides. An American died and the President, who last June canceled the Iranian retaliation attack at the last minute, now faces a new option.

Advisers told Trump that Iran seemed to consider him a "paper tiger" because he hesitated to use force. To deter them, he should have a tough reaction. While on vacation at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, the President agreed to attack Kataib Hezbollah targets in Iraq and Syria on December 29, 2019, killing 25 militants and wounding at least 50 people.

Outraged by the attacks, on December 31, 2019, pro-Iranian protesters stormed the US embassy in Baghdad. Worrying about the 1979 hostage crisis, Trump sent 100 marines from Kuwait to Baghdad to protect the embassy.

When watching television in Florida, Trump resented the chaos in Iraq and was willing to allow a stronger response. On December 31, 2019, a top-secret memorandum signed by National Security Adviser Robert C. O'Brien was presented to Trump, listing potential attack targets including an Iranian energy facility and an IRGC command ship.

The memorandum also lists a tougher plan: targeting specific Iranian officials. Among the targets was Abdul Reza Shahlai, the Iranian task force commander in Yemen responsible for IRGC's financial management. Another name on the list: General Soleimani.

Soleimani, 62, is the second-most powerful person in Iran and has been accused by the United States of being responsible for proxy wars in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, including roadside bombing and other attacks that kill around 600 American soldiers during the height of the Iraq War.

Soleimani often moves without a bulletproof vest or carries his own bodyguards, ready to dine with the warriors and advise them to take care of their parents, according to a commander of the armed group Hezbollah, who met him. in Syria.

For the past 18 months, US officials have discussed whether to target General Soleimani. They found it very difficult to attack him in Iran, so they tracked him down when he went to Syria or Iraq and developed a spy network in the region.

Spies in Syria and Iraq revealed that Soleimani only flew on certain airlines and sometimes bought multiple airline tickets to fire blind. He boarded the plane as late as possible and sat in the front row of business class so he could get off first.

General Soleimani set off on the last trip of his life on January 1, flew to Damascus and then traveled by car to Lebanon to meet Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah before returning to Damascus that night. During the meeting, Nasrallah warned Soleimani that the American media was focusing on him and posting photos of him.

"They are preparing in the media and politics to assassinate you," Nasrallah said.

General Soleimani laughed, saying that he wished to be martyred and asked Nasrallah to pray he would enjoy the privilege.

That same day, at the CIA headquarters in Virginia, director Gina Haspel was working to make that prayer a reality. She received word that Soleimani was preparing to move from Syria to Iraq. There is also information Soleimani is planning a large-scale attack to oust the US from the Middle East.

They do not have a clear, consistent source of information but there are small pieces of information showing that Soleimani is coordinating regional delegation forces, including in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, to attack embassies and The base has Americans. Some officials said they did not have enough specific information to describe that this threat was "imminent" as Pompeo explained the reason for Soleimani's murder. However, they have seen disturbing signs.

Pompeo said such an attack could kill hundreds of people, but other officials said there was no specific intelligence to show that. Most of the US facilities in the region are strictly protected for many years, and such a large number of deaths is very unlikely. Even in the worst of the Iraq war, no hostile force was able to launch such a serious attack on the Americans.

At dawn on January 3 in Baghdad, the US air assault killed Soleimani outside Baghdad airport. Most of Trump's senior advisers supported this decision, but some Pentagon officials were shocked when the President chose the most extreme option. Some intelligence officials worry that the government has not considered the long-term consequences of Iraq asking the US to withdraw its troops from the country.

Trump plans to play golf on the morning of January 4, but advisers advised him not to do so for fear of sending a bad message, as Generalimimimani's death rocked the Middle East and increased the risk of conflict. with Iran.

The US president was initially optimistic, hoping the campaign would be welcomed with applause like the October raid that killed the supreme leader of the Islamic State group (IS) calling himself Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi. He called Soleimani "the number one terrorist anywhere in the world", like a few months ago, he declared al-Baghdadi as "the world's number one terrorist leader".

But when the President watched television on the weekend, he was angry that many analysts criticized him for escalating reckless. Meanwhile, the guests at the Florida club appeased him, praising him for his assertiveness.

The Trump administration did not alert its European allies or Gulf partners before the attack. The only foreign leader who seemed to know about the murder of Soleimani was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump is almost alone on the world stage. No European power has voiced support for the air strike. The Israeli leader was pleased with the outcome but did not speak out much because he did not want to provoke Iran's anger.

The European nation playing the most important role in the seven days of intense tensions was Switzerland, the intermediary between the US and Iran since they cut diplomatic ties in 1980. Hours after the attack, ambassador Swiss in Iran Markus Leitner went to the Iranian Foreign Ministry to deliver US mail, urging it not to escalate tensions, warning that any retaliation would provoke further military action from Trump.

On the morning of January 8, Iran launched 22 missiles at two bases in Iraq with US troops stationed, destroying a helicopter, a few tents and some other structures but causing no casualties. American soldiers knew the rocket was about to come and went into the bunker. Shortly thereafter, Iran sent a message to the United States via Switzerland: It was the only retaliation.

Americans are surprised by the speed of communication. The message was presented to Trump and Pompeo only 5 minutes after the Swiss received it from Tehran. They sent encrypted fax messages to their embassy in Washington and then to Brian H. Hook, the US special envoy to Iran just two minutes after Tehran sent them.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War, called for caution. "Keep calm," he said. "The ball is in our yard. No need to rush. Spend more time pondering."

When Trump went on holiday that night, advisers said he was relieved that there were no casualties. He posted a reassuring tweet: "Everything is fine!".

The following afternoon, Trump spoke from the White House. Despite criticizing Iran's activities in the region, the President insisted he would not retaliate further. "Iran seems to have entered the country," he said, but did not disclose a secret message sent to Switzerland. He affirmed his willingness to peace with Iran.

The two sides have stepped back on the crater of war, but there is another complicated issue.

Hours after Iran raided a missile base in Iraq, a Ukrainian plane carrying 176 people crashed on the outskirts of Tehran. Iran initially denied it was involved in the tragedy, but later admitted to shooting the plane because it mistook it for a cruise missile. Ukraine, which lost many citizens in the incident, demanded that Iran compensate the victim's family. Hundreds of Iranians indignantly took to the streets to protest against the government.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called this "an unforgivable great tragedy". Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif admitted that the Ukrainian plane crashed "due to human error". However, he also sought to impart partial responsibility to the United States by saying that the error occurred "at a time of heightened tension due to American adventurism".

After 7 days of heavy gunpowder smell, the risk of the US-Iran war was almost resolved. However, not many people think that the crisis is over. In the coming months, Iran may find ways to continue provoking the United States, possibly with cyber attacks or relying on proxy.

"Soleimani is an inspirational person, a national symbol, a symbol of struggle," said Ali Alfoneh, an expert from the Gulf States Institute in Washington. "But he is also a very small part of a very large organization."

"It is true that the organization was 'beheaded', but it was not annihilated," he added.