President Donald Trump on Thursday referred to the late Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani as the “father of the roadside bomb,” claiming the general was responsible for the vast majority of improvised explosive device (IED) attacks that injured or killed US service members during the Afghanistan war.
Speaking at a National Purple Heart Day ceremony honoring American veterans, Trump recounted the story of Army Sgt. Brian Willette, who was severely wounded in a 2010 roadside bombing during a resupply mission in Afghanistan.
“You know who did the roadside bomb, right? Sulaimani. Where is he? Where is he? Where is Sulaimani? He did. He was the father of the roadside bomb. They say 92% of the people who got either killed or badly hurt, it was Sulaimani. He was the one that did it more than anybody else by far, leaving this person very seriously injured,” Trump said.
He did not cite a specific source for the figure, which contradicts past reports attributing most IED attacks against US forces in Afghanistan to the Taliban — not Iran or its proxies.
Soleimani was the commander of the Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was killed in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad’s airport in January 2020, during Trump’s presidency.
Trump also honored Sgt. Willette’s son, Private Kevin Willette, who was injured during a separate insurgent attack in Afghanistan seven months later. Despite being knocked down by a grenade blast, the younger Willette “rose to his feet and successfully repulsed the attack on his camp,” Trump said. He was awarded both the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for valor.
