Pentagon, Iran Revolutionary Guards confirmed the attack, in which Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of the Iran-backed militias, was also killed
The United States carried out a strike that killed Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, the Pentagon said Friday.
“The U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
“Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack U.S. diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more,” the statement read.
Also confirming the attack, Iran Revolutionary Guards said that “Honored supreme commander of Islam Soleimani was martyred in attack by U.S. helicopters,” Iran state media reported.
The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, Iraqi officials said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Soleimani’s assassination would strengthen resistance against the United States and Israel in the region and the world, Iranian state television reported.
“The brutality and stupidity of American terrorist forces in assassinating Commander Soleimani … will undoubtedly make the tree of resistance in the region and the world more prosperous,” Zarif said in a statement.
Zarif also took to twitter earlier and said the assassination was “an extremely dangerous and foolish escalation. The U.S. bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism.”
Iran’s top security body will meet on Friday to discuss the “criminal” attack that killed Soleimani, its spokesman was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.
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