Why, then, such senior — and notorious — figures would have travelled from an international airport, is something of an open question, as the United States has perfected this sort of operation in the last 18 years. Michael Knights, a security expert and senior fellow at the Washington Institute in D.C., said Soleimani’s movements before the convoy was hit was a “very foolish thing to do.”
“They took a big risk. They put themselves in very close proximity to a lot of U.S. surveillance. It was a golden opportunity,” said Knights. “(The Americans looked at it and thought) it’s a VIP convoy, it’s not one of our own, or any of the coalition, it’s not anyone else. All the boxes were ticked. ‘If we want to do this, we can do it clean’ “
