Summary: Killing the Killers by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard

The Secret War Against Terrorists. Dive into the heart of covert operations with Killing the Killers, a book that exposes the relentless global war on terror. This gripping narrative captures the essence of bravery and strategic prowess.

Continue reading to uncover the clandestine battles that have shaped our world and the masterminds who have fought them.

Killing the Killers by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard is an intense narrative that chronicles America’s war against terrorism post-9/11. The book details operations across Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Libya, focusing on the fight against Al Qaeda, ISIS, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. It highlights the takedown of notorious terrorist leaders and provides a deep dive into the strategies and sacrifices involved in this global conflict.

Genres

History, Politics, Social Sciences, Government, Middle Eastern Politics, Afghan War Military History, American Military History

Introduction: Learn about General Qasem Soleimani from his beginnings to his fateful end.

Killing the Killers (2022) takes you deep into the global war on terror. As it examines the role of Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, it moves through all the theaters of action including Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and Afghanistan. It’s the eleventh book in the best-selling Killing series.

While Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard’s Killing the Killers covers the war on terror from 2014 through 2020, it’s impossible for us to capture it all in a single summary. So, in this summary, we’ve chosen to provide a snapshot of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, and a portrait of one man in particular – the IRGC’s leader, General Qasem Soleimani.

During his lifetime, Qasem Soleimani could have been mistaken for any other devout Iranian man. He lived in Tehran with his wife and five children – three boys and two girls. He rose at 4:00 a.m. each morning. He had trouble with his prostate – for which he took medication – and struggled with back pain. He came across as both religious and kind, if sometimes stern and dogmatic. If a non-Iranian encountered him on the streets of Tehran, they’d have no way of knowing what lay behind this facade.

In 2015, mid-battle against ISIS at its stronghold in Tikrit, Soleimani came out of the shadows. He allowed himself to be photographed for the first time; wearing a soldier’s fatigues with a general’s epaulets, he knelt in prayer in the middle of the desert. On social media, many noted his handsome, unlined face. His dark eyes, black eyebrows, and neatly-trimmed gray beard were accompanied by a gentle smile.

At the time the photograph was taken, Soleimani and his forces were already responsible for thousands of deaths. He’d orchestrated terror attacks in Somalia, India, and Thailand, his forces behaving no better than ISIS – kidnapping and executing civilians, raping women, and burning down people’s houses.

In this summary, we’ll look at the rapid rise of Soleimani, as well as the events leading up to and including his assassination in 2020.

In this summary, you’ll learn

• when Soleimani came to detest the US;
• about two letters – one from Soleimani, the other sent to him; and
• what the last terrifying sound was that Soleimani ever heard.

Soleimani rises in prominence.

Let’s take a trip back to 1979, the year of the Iranian Revolution. The shah of Iran has fled the country, chased out by followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shia Muslim revolutionary who’d been exiled for 15 years. Having returned to Iran, Khomeini now needs a military force to maintain his grip on power. He establishes the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. A fresh-faced 22-year-old with no military experience joins up: Qasem Soleimani.

Life in the IRGC suits him well. He proves himself to be a capable commander, and is soon invited to an elite training camp, where he excels. He even refuses sick leave when he’s accidentally shot in the arm.

In September 1980, Iraq invades Iran, and a bitter war breaks out. Soleimani finds himself at the front, leading a military company. The war rages for eight years and Soleimani quickly rises through the ranks. It’s during this time that he comes to believe that Iraq should, from then onward, remain weak – incapable of threatening Iran ever again. It’s a philosophy that he later extends to all countries of the region. And, since the US was aligned with the Iraqis, he begins to believe the US must be destroyed. The war ends in a deadlock with over 100,000 soldiers dead on both sides.

Skip forward a decade, from the end of the war to 1997, and Soleimani has become commander of the special intelligence arm of the IRGC – the Quds Force. From his position of power, Soleimani, now a general, begins to wage “secret wars” on several fronts – in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Over the coming years, Quds focuses on recruiting and training terror factions and encouraging insurrection. Under Soleimani, it will go on to give support to the Muslim factions fighting in the Bosnian war. It will train and arm Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine. It will give support to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, as well as to Houthi militants battling against Saudi Arabian forces in Yemen. And, in Afghanistan, Quds Force will work with the Taliban to kill Americans.

In 2003, the US invades Iraq with orders to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Even though his hatred for Saddam is strong, Soleimani’s hatred of the US grows even more. He oversees the provision of materials for the Iraqis to attack US forces. Iranian forces plant bombs in road surfaces to destroy US vehicles and they attack US bases. And while all this is going on, Soleimani’s power grows.

In 2013, former CIA officer John Maguire calls Soleimani “the single most powerful operative in the world today.” And adds: “no one’s ever heard of him.”

Soleimani himself, though, isn’t shy about self-promotion. He even writes to the commander of the US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, “I, Qasem Soleimani, control the policy for Iran with respect to Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, and Afghanistan.”

The capture of Tikrit by Iranian forces was a severe symbolic and tactical blow to ISIS.

Iran has always sought to contain Sunni Muslims living in Iraq; Muslims in Iran are overwhelmingly Shia. In March 2015, it’s no different – to the Iranians, the Sunni ISIS terrorists are enemies. They’re less than pleased by the success of ISIS in establishing their caliphate on Iraqi soil, so it’s no surprise when Soleimani launches an attack with 20,000 Shia military fighters.

Tikrit has been controlled by ISIS since 2014. The city isn’t huge, but it’s significant, both symbolically and tactically. It was the birthplace of the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein. And it lies on the banks of the Tigris, halfway between Baghdad to the south and Mosel to the north.

The odds for the 4,000 ISIS fighters don’t look good; they’re vastly outnumbered by the Iranians’ 20,000. And then comes even more bad news for ISIS: their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been severely injured by an American drone strike. Operations have been handed over to his deputy.

As the ISIS fighters await the Iranians, explosions from rockets launched by Soleimani’s forces light up the sky. There’s nothing that al-Baghdadi’s forces in Tikrit can do to stop the advance of the Iranian forces.

Meanwhile, less than 100 miles away, US forces are attacking the ISIS-held city of Kirkuk from the air in coordination with Turkish Kurd ground forces. ISIS is facing attacks on two fronts simultaneously – attacks waged by bitter rivals, the US and Iran. But no matter. ISIS is on the retreat.

Soleimani is discussed but ISIS and al-Baghdadi take center stage.

It’s 10:09 a.m., December 2, 2015. In Washington, DC, the threat from ISIS is being discussed by the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs. Everyone in the room has been briefed about ISIS and al-Baghdadi. More than 1,200 people have been killed at their hands in terror attacks, not including thousands of casualties in Iraq and Syria.

Barely three weeks have passed since a campaign of attacks in Paris shocked the world. The attacks – at the Stade de France, at the Bataclan theater, and at other locations throughout the city – have left 130 innocent people dead.

Even with these attacks fresh in their minds, the attention of the committee is drawn to the IRGC and 58-year-old General Soleimani, considered by many to be much more of a threat than ISIS and its leader. Committee chairman, Ed Royce, talks about the IRGC’s support for international terrorism, human rights abuses, and nuclear proliferation. He argues that the IRGC has made Iran the threat that it is. Another politician says that although al-Baghdadi is a good figurehead for ISIS, it will only be a small step backward when he gets replaced. But Soleimani is brilliant – “in another lifetime, someone who would run Microsoft” – and his elimination will result in an unrecoverable loss of leadership and intelligence.

All told, the committee meeting discussions last two hours – but Soleimani has been named only twice.

ISIS has been forced out of Tikrit and Soleimani has disappeared back into the shadows. The retreating al-Baghdadi and ISIS once again take center stage as that very afternoon a Pakistani couple, inspired by ISIS, attack a local health-department building in San Bernardino, California, leaving 14 Americans dead.

A letter from Pompeo to Soleimani goes unread, but the message is clear.

In November 2017, Soleimani is writing to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, to confirm his strategic victory over ISIS in Syria. It’s not only a strategic victory, but also revenge for a humiliating attack by ISIS in the heart of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Five months ago, a surprise attack by seven ISIS fighters resulted in 17 deaths and 43 injuries – the first such attack on Iranian soil.

Now, the citadel at Abu Kamal, the last ISIS stronghold in Syria, has been captured. Photos of Soleimani commanding his troops – calm, professional, and surrounded by bodyguards – are omnipresent in the media.

His letter talks about ISIS youth blowing themselves up in suicide attacks in the name of Islam. But then he pivots and directs his energy toward Iran’s greatest enemy: the United States. He claims that “all of these crimes were plotted and carried out by the leaders and organizations tied to the US.”

Seven thousand miles away, Mike Pompeo, director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, has been following the situation closely. He has a history with Soleimani stretching back to the Gulf War. Pompeo makes it clear that the US “will hold him and Iran accountable for any attacks on American interests in Iraq by forces that are under their control.” He even goes so far as to send Soleimani a letter saying that the US will retaliate aggressively in response to any Iranian-sponsored terror. Soleimani does not accept or read the letter, but the message has been received.

The US is clearly at war with Soleimani.

And so, too, is al-Baghdadi, who has disappeared as Soleimani closes in. He plots to kill Soleimani.

President Trump plans to eliminate both. Death orders are issued against them. Under Trump, all – and that means all – terror threats must be eliminated.

Death comes to the leaders of ISIS.

It’s 9:15 p.m. on January 30, 2018. In Washington, President Trump is making his first State of the Union address. He has much to talk about. But around 40 minutes in, his attention switches to the war on terror. A year ago, he promised “the development of a new plan to defeat ISIS.” And his aggressive posture has been working.

In fact, ISIS has already lost 95 percent of its territory. But, in spite of that, attacks on American targets haven’t stopped.

Two weeks after the address, 55-year-old Ismael al-Ethawi, al-Baghdadi’s top lieutenant responsible for stonings, beheadings, and throwing people from rooftops, is arrested in Turkey. The Turks extract information – including details of al-Baghdadi’s secret homes and movements in Syria – which they promptly pass to Iraqi authorities and the CIA.

Using al-Ethawi’s revelations and his cellphone, the CIA sets a trap. Four top ISIS leaders reply to text messages from al-Ethawi’s phone and arrange to meet at a “safe location” in Iraq. They’re quickly taken into custody. None of them, nor al-Ethawi, are ever seen in public again. In fact, their fate has never been revealed. The leadership of ISIS has suffered a severe blow.

In spite of all his attempts to remain hidden, al-Baghdadi’s whereabouts are finally discovered through two strokes of luck. First, one of his many wives and a courier acting as her bodyguard are arrested. They reveal that al-Baghdadi is living in a hilltop compound at Barisha. Then, an Arab whose identity remains secret betrays al-Baghdadi and provides the CIA with inside knowledge of the compound arrangement. The scene is set.

October 27, 2019, 1:10 a.m.: Night Stalkers – some of the US Army’s best aviators – are closing in on al-Baghdadi’s compound in Black Hawks and Chinooks. They’re spotted and come under fire. Nobody is hurt. They respond by firing machine guns from the Black Hawks. Their ISIS targets are neutralized.

The Black Hawks land outside the compound and a ten-man Delta Force team jumps out and spreads out. They blast holes in the compound wall and prepare to enter the buildings. It’s only ten minutes after landing that a soldier calls out in Arabic requesting the surrender of al-Baghdadi.

Women and children appear. They’re quickly searched and then taken to a waiting helicopter. They inform the soldiers that at least four ISIS fighters are in the compound along with al-Baghdadi and two of his children.

The Arab who betrayed al-Baghdadi is inside al-Baghdadi’s residence and makes himself known to the approaching soldiers. They go from room to room quickly. Four women – two of whom are married to al-Baghdadi – are found wearing suicide vests. One reaches to detonate her vest. Without hesitation, all four are shot in the head. Elsewhere, two ISIS fighters are shot dead trying to detonate explosives.

Conan, a Belgian Malinois military dog, follows al-Baghdadi down escape tunnels; al-Baghdadi is trapped. He pulls his two young children that are with him to his side. Moments later, he detonates his suicide vest, killing himself and the children instanty. His head remains intact. Later, together with DNA testing, this lets Delta Force know they got their man.

The next morning, back in Washington, Trump speaks from the White House. “Last night, the United States brought the world’s terrorist leader to justice,” he proclaims. “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead.”

The global response is positive. Even Russia applauds the result. But in Iran, Soleimani is less than impressed. And for a while, ISIS refuses even to acknowledge that its leader is dead.

At the end of 2019, tension between the US and Iran escalates immeasurably.

It’s 7:20 p.m., December 27, 2019. Location: Kirkuk, Iraq. At Camp K-1, a joint Iraqi-US military base, dinner has just ended. Five-foot-long Katyusha rockets strike unexpectedly, primarily on the US side of the camp. Four US service members and two Iraqi security personnel are wounded and an American civilian contractor, Nawres Hamid, is killed.

There have already been eleven other rocket incidents since November, but, until now, nobody has been killed. It’s taken as an act of war. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reminds the Iranians that attacks orchestrated by them “will be answered with a decisive US response.”

One day later, 3,000 miles south of Iraq, in Mogadishu, Somalia, Iranian-backed al-Qaeda terrorists explode a truck bomb at a busy security checkpoint. Ninety are dead. One-hundred-and-twenty are wounded. Pompeo announces that the time has come for that decisive response.

The next morning, at 11:00 a.m., US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles release precision-guided bombs over their preselected targets – three Iranian ammunition depots in Iraq and two in Syria. Twenty-five die in the attacks and 55 are injured.

Meanwhile, in Somalia, US jets, in conjunction with the Somali government, target and kill the four militants responsible for the bombing in Mogadishu.

Iran pledges revenge: a tough response on US forces in Iraq. Pompeo reiterates that the US won’t tolerate Iranian actions that put American lives at risk.

New Year’s Eve. Tension is rising in Baghdad after three months of protests against the Iranians by Sunni Muslims. Iranian-backed counterprotesters are already in the mix. And tonight, a third group, mourners of the militiamen killed in the US bombing two days ago, join the confrontation. They throw rocks at the US Embassy and shout “Death to America.” Eventually, they breach the embassy’s outer walls, enter storage facilities, and ransack files. US marines train their guns on the crowd from vantage points on top of the embassy building.

Trump tweets: “. . . Iran is orchestrating an attack on the US embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible.”

One-thousand militia members spend the night surrounding the embassy. The Americans are trapped. The Iraqis don’t intervene. Eventually, the US marines fire tear gas, and two helicopter gunships zoom down to menace the mob, which disperses.

As the embassy siege comes to an end, Soleimani makes plans for a new wave of attacks on American troops. He boards a Syrian airliner to take him from Damascus to Baghdad.

A severed hand and a distinctive ring are all that remain.

It’s 12:32 a.m. on January 3, 2020. General Qasem Soleimani is sitting in the front row of an airbus A320 as it touches down at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq after its one-hour flight from the Syrian capital. He’s accompanied by two loyal Quds bodyguards and by two high-level Iranian officials. Soleimani trusts each of them implicitly.

They disembark and are met by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, founder of the Kataib Hezbollah militia. They drive away together in two SUVs. Soleimani believes he’s completely safe. But at that moment, the two cars are being followed from 20,000 feet by at least two MQ-9 Reaper drones.

Gina Haspel, director of the CIA, has been tracking Soleimani’s movements. She knows Soleimani is meeting militia allies in Iraq to plan attacks on US troops. She also knows it’s time to deal with Soleimani, and Trump has already signed off a lethal intervention following the attack on the Baghdad embassy. Soleimani has been on the list of the US most wanted terrorists for years but has so far evaded assassination attempts. Now, though, his location and intention to harm US troops are beyond doubt.

Each drone is 36 feet long with a wingspan of 20 meters and weighs 5 tons – including fuel and weapons. Each has a camera capable of clearly photographing words on a golf ball from 3 miles away. Now, those cameras are trained on Soleimani’s vehicles.

Airforce pilots monitor each Reaper from Creech Air Force Base, 32 miles outside of Las Vegas. They monitor the two SUVs on video screens. They’re the only two vehicles on the road right now, but once they head into Baghdad, they’ll blend in with the other cars.

At 2:55 p.m. in Las Vegas, the order comes. It’s 12:55 a.m. in Baghdad. Soleimani is sitting in the back of one of the SUVs with Mahdi al-Muhandis. The only sound is that of their conversation – most probably discussions about the next atrocities to be unleashed on the US.

Then comes a sudden, terrifying sound: a split-second roar of a Hellfire rocket – the last sound Soleimani hears. Two missiles slam into his car. A third and fourth slam into the second car. The vehicles are obliterated – two flaming mounds of metal remain. Everyone is burned beyond recognition – but somehow the severed hand of Soleimani has been thrown clear and can be seen on the road shoulder, identifiable by his distinctive silver and red ring.

Epilogue

A mass killer was dead. The Iranians protested, but their protest was muted. Demonstrations around the world soon turned to anger and disgust – at the US. It wasn’t long before Trump and the US were being portrayed as the villains.

News channels in the US aired programs where commentators gave differing viewpoints. Would it have been less dangerous to keep Soleimani alive? Did the benefits outweigh the risks?

Trump gave an address in which he claimed to have carried out a preemptive strike before more attacks on Americans could take place. He praised the flawless strike and said Soleimani had been planning a “very major attack. And we got him.”

In Iran, a mob chanted “Death to America” and US flags were burned. Iran promised to strike back at a time and place of its choosing. The US should expect anything.

#WorldWar3 began to trend on Twitter.

The world began to take sides. Russia condemned the assassination while Israel and Saudi Arabia supported it. The UN said the attack was a violation of its charter. And the whole world waited for Iranian revenge.

Hours after Soleimani’s funeral, the wait was over. Half an hour after midnight, a US airbase in Iraq was the target of Iranian missiles designed to fragment into shrapnel on hitting their target, causing maximum casualties. But when the dust cleared, not a single US soldier had been killed. President Trump tweeted, “All is well.”

Everyone in Iran was tense, expecting further retaliation. An incompetent commander saw a strange image on the radar and believed it to be an incoming cruise missile. It wasn’t. It was a Ukrainian passenger jet traveling to Kyiv. Just three minutes after taking off from Tehran airport, it was blasted from the sky, killing the 176 passengers and crew.

Although, at first, the Iranians denied involvement – they claimed there was a fire in one of the engines – eventually they admitted to human error.

General Qassem Soleimani had – effectively – claimed his last victims.

About the author

BILL O’REILLY’s success in broadcasting and publishing is unmatched. He was the iconic anchor of The O’Reilly Factor, the highest-rated cable news broadcast in the nation for 16 consecutive years. His website BillOReilly.com is followed by millions all over the world, his No Spin News is broadcast weekday nights at 8 and 11 (ET) on The First TV, and his O’Reilly Update is heard weekdays on more than 225 radio stations across the country. He has authored an astonishing seventeen #1 bestsellers; his historical Killing series is the bestselling nonfiction series of all time, with over 18 million books in print. O’Reilly has received a number of journalism accolades, including three Emmys and two Emmy nominations. He holds a History degree from Marist College, a master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University, and a master’s degree from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. O’Reilly lives on Long Island where he was raised. His philanthropic enterprises have raised tens of millions for people in need and wounded American veterans.

MARTIN DUGARD is the New York Times bestselling author of several books of history, among them the Killing series, Into Africa, and The Explorers. He and his wife live in Southern California with their three sons.