"It caused a chill." This is the ultra-secret plane that killed an Iranian military

The Department of Defense used a sophisticated drone to kill Iranian military general Qasem Soleimani on Thursday outside the Baghdad airport (Iraq).

Soleimani, considered until his death as the main Iranian military leader, was already in the spotlight of US special commands one night in 2007, but was not shot down, according to The New York Times, to avoid a shooting and conflict political.

Earlier this Friday, however, a drone, as these unmanned aircraft are known, fired one or more missiles at the convoy in which the Iranian general was traveling along with other officials.

A security camera captured the moment of the explosion, which caused 10 deaths.

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The ultra-secret operation to locate Soleimani was launched after the death of an American contractor in Iraq a week ago, according to the newspaper.

During the following days the special operations commands sought the opportunity to launch the attack, which arrived when Soleimani arrived at the Baghdad airport. Upon checking that there were no Iraqi officers with him, the operation was approved.

The MQ-9 Reape r drone can reach a cruising speed of 230 miles per hour, and, according to the website of the United States Air Force, “is used primarily against dynamic execution targets and, secondly place, as an intelligence information gathering asset. ”

Reaper in English means reaper, in reference to Death , which is represented with a scythe.

It measures 11 meters long, 20 meters wide, and almost four meters high, and can carry two tons of weight. It came into operation in 2007, and is larger and more robust than its predecessor, the MQ-1 Predator.

The Air Force has 93 units , according to a September 2015 count.

"It consists of wide-range sensors, multimode communications set and precision weapons, which provides a unique ability to carry out attacks, coordination and recognition against high-value, fleeting and time-sensitive targets," details the Air Force.

Specifically, it has an infrared ray sensor , several television cameras, a laser illuminator and "the full motion video of each of the image sensors can be viewed as separate or fused video sequences."

The plane had remained outside the public sphere until an air show last year in Las Vegas, where, according to the specialized website The Aviationist, its silent flight "caused a chill" to the spectators.

Among his missions and tasks is listed "precision attack". It can carry up to four laser-guided Hellfire Air-Earth missiles, which provide "highly precise capabilities for collateral, anti-armor and anti-personnel damage."

It would be those rockets that calcined the convoy where the Iranian general was traveling, to the point that he could only be identified by a ring.