Iran news – live: Trump claims Qassem Soleimani was ‘plotting to kill’ Americans, and urges US citizens to leave Iraq after killing of Iran’s top general
US president and his top diplomat provide no detail for claim, while Tehran and allies vow revenge
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump and his top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, have claimed Qassem Soleimani posed an “imminent” threat to American lives that justified the airstrike that killed him in Baghdad last night.
The US president said the Iranian general was “plotting to kill” US citizens, but neither he nor Mr Pompeo provided additional details to support the claim. Americans in Iraq have been urged to leave immediately in the wake of the killing.
Soleimani, the head of the elite Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force and Tehran’s most senior military commander in Iraq, was killed near Baghdad Airport alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a high-ranking commander in Iraq’s militia.
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Jeremy Corbyn, the outgoing Labour leader, has urged the government to take a stand against the "belligerent actions and rhetoric" from Washington after Donald Trump ordered Iran's top general killed.
The airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani was "an extremely serious and dangerous escalation of conflict in the Middle East with global significance", Mr Corbyn said.
Kayleigh McEnany, the press secretary for Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, has claimed the killing of Qassem Soleimani was the "greatest foreign policy accomplishment of the decade, if not our lifetime"
The British government has appeared to back the US killing of an Iranian general, branding the target an "aggressive threat", writes Jon Stone.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab called for calm following the American drone strike near the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, which killed Qasem Soleimani, who was visiting the city.
The strike, ordered by Donald Trump, appears to have dragged the two countries towards a deepening conflict – with Iran's leader pledging "revenge" for the "criminal" attack.
A spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guard broke down on television following the death of Qassem Soleimani, demonstrating the regard in which he was held at home.
German soldiers who have helped train Iraqi security forces have been ordered not to leave their bases.
While training activities will continue, the 130 troopers will not be allowed to move outside their facilities in Taji and Baghdad, the country's defence ministry said.
The European Council has urged all sides to avoid further escalation of violence in Iraq.
In a statement its president, Charles Michel, said: "The cycle of violence, provocations and retaliations which we have witnessed In Iraq over the past few weeks has to stop. Further escalation must be avoided at all cost.
"Iraq remains a very fragile country. Too many weapons and too many militias are slowing the process towards a return to normal daily life for Iraq’s citizens.
"The risk is a generalised flare-up of violence in the whole region and the rise of obscure forces of terrorism that thrive at times of religious and nationalist tensions."
Donald Trump has been accused of hypocrisy for ordering the killing of a top Iranian general, after a series of tweets emerged from 2011 of him saying former president Barack Obama would start a war with Iran in order to get re-elected, writes Kate Ng.
Qassem Soleimani was one of the most powerful figures in Iran, enjoying a close relationship with supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Tehran has vowed "harsh vengeance" for his death.
Between 2011 and 2015, Mr Trump tweeted multiple times that Mr Obama was vying to start a war with Iran because of "his inability to negotiate".
This map shows the proximity of Baghdad Airport to the green zone, where the US embassy is located (Google Maps/The Independent)
"If you think the war in Iraq was a disaster, my guess is the war in Iran would be even worse." That's the message from Bernie Sanders, who is campaigning to become the Democratic nominee for president.
Talking up his anti-war credentials in a video, the Vermont senator said he would "do everything in my power to prevent a war with Iran".
Donald Trump has likely not considered the ramifications of his order to kill Qassem Soleimani, an American former diplomat has claimed.
Nicholas Burns, the ex-US ambassador to Nato, tweeted: "If Soleimani was planning strikes against our embassies, the U.S. had a legitimate right to stop him.
"But has Trump considered next 15 moves on chessboard? How to protect our people? Line up allies to support us? Contain Iran but avoid wider war? My guess is he hasn’t."
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