Shafaq News / Iran’s official media reported today, Tuesday, that the American intelligence man, Michael Dandria, nicknamed “Ayatollah Mike,” was accused by Tehran of plotting to assassinate Al- Quds Force commander, Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.

Iranian television and the official Mehr Agency announced that the American officer was on board of the American military plane, which crashed yesterday in Ghazni province, central Afghanistan, and the Taliban claimed responsibility for the crash.

The US military confirmed the crash of the E-11A plane, but said that "there are no indications that the crash was caused by enemy fire" despite Taliban claims that its gunmen shot down the plane.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman said that an American military plane crashed in Ghazni province in central Afghanistan, pointing out that "the plane was flying for intelligence purposes, and that all those on board were American officers and they were killed."

The television reported that "Dandria also supervised the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, a senior military commander of the Lebanese Hezbollah in Syria in 2008."

Dandria is 62 years old, converted to Islam and was commissioned in 2017, headed by the CIA's Iran Mission Center, while press reports indicate that he also took over the files of Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to being a key figure in the search for an al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.