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Iran vows revenge after US strike kills top military commander Qassem Soleimani
- Trump said Soleimani was plotting to kill Americans and he should have been taken out ‘many years ago’
- Soleimani developed a reputation as one of the most powerful and mysterious men in the Middle East, overseeing Iranian operations abroad
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Tehran vowed harsh revenge after the United States killed Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force and architect of Iran’s spreading military influence in the Middle East, in an air strike on Friday at Baghdad airport.
Soleimani’s killing, authorised by President Donald Trump, marked a dramatic escalation in the regional “shadow war” between Iran and the US and its allies, principally Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Top Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an adviser to Soleimani, was also killed in the attack.
Iran has been locked in a long conflict with Washington that escalated sharply last week with an attack on the US embassy in Iraq by pro-Iranian militiamen following a US air raid on the Kataib Hezbollah militia, founded by Muhandis.
“At the direction of the president, the US military has taken decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad by killing Qassem Soleimani,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
“This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans,” it added.
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