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RUSSIA claimed that the US intelligence chief that planned the assassination of Iranian commander General Qasem Soleimani was killed in a plane downed over Afghanistan on Wednesday.
Intelligence sources said that the head of CIA operations in Iran, Michael D’Andrea, was on board the Bombardier E-11A plane which crashed in Ghazni.
The Taliban claimed to have shot down the spy plane, although this has not been confirmed.
Mr D’Andrea was seen as taking a more aggressive stance towards Iran since he was appointed head of the CIA’s Iran mission centre in 2017.
He was known by the nicknames Ayatollah Mike, the Dark Prince and the Undertaker.
The CIA chief was known for the agency’s notorious “signature strike” in which drone attacks were launched against people simply because of a belief that their behaviour made them appear to be terrorists.
It is believed that he also masterminded the murder of former Hezbollah boss Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus, Syria, in 2008 and played a key role in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.