Baghdad: Iran has vowed “harsh retaliation” for a US airstrike near Baghdad’s airport that killed Tehran’s top general and the architect of its interventions across the Middle East, as tensions soared in the wake of the targeted killing.
The killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, marks a major escalation in the standoff between Washington and Iran, which has careened from one crisis to another since President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions.
The US urged its US citizens to leave Iraq “immediately.” Around 5,200 American troops are based in Iraq, where they mainly train Iraqi forces and help to combat Islamic State militants.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that a “harsh retaliation is waiting” for the US after the airstrike, calling Soleimani the “international face of resistance.” Khamenei declared three days of public mourning for the general’s death, and appointed Maj. Gen. Esmail Ghaani, Soleim-ani’s deputy, to replace him as head of the elite Quds force.
Iran also summoned the Swiss charges d’affaires, who represents US interests in Tehran, to protest the killing. Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Jav-ad Zarif called the strike “an act of state terrorism and violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.” The killing, and any forceful retaliation by Iran, could ignite a conflict that engulfs the whole region, endangering US troops in Iraq, Syria and beyond. Over the last two decades, Soleimani had assembled a network of heavily armed allies stretching all the way to southern Lebanon, on Israel’s doorstep. However, the brazen killing may itself act as a deterrent, with fears of an all-out war leading Iran and its allies to delay or restrain any potential response.
Oil prices surged on news of the killing and markets were mixed.
The defense department said it killed Soleimani because he “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the reg-ion.” It also accused Soleimani of approving the orchestrated violent protests at the US Emb-assy in Baghdad earlier this week.
The airport strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces. A PMF official said the strike killed a total of eight people, including Soleimani’s son-in-law.
The attack marks a turning point in the Middle East and represents a drastic change for US policy toward Iran after months of tensions.
