Washington is committed to “de-escalation” after a US air strike in Baghdad killed Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s growing military influence in the Middle East, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says.
Pompeo said on Twitter on Friday that he spoke to British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab and China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi about the US decision to eliminate Soleimani, who commanded Iran’s elite Quds Force.
“Thankful that our allies recognise the continuing aggressive threats posed by the Iranian Quds Force.
“The U.S. remains committed to de-escalation,” the U.S. announced earlier that it had killed the commander of the Islamic republic’s Quds Force in a strike on Baghdad’s international airport.
The strike also killed the deputy chief of Iraq’s powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force.
Pro-Iranian demonstrators laid siege to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, angered by U.S. weekend air strikes that killed two dozen fighters from the hardline Kataeb Hezbollah paramilitary group.
The strikes were in response to a rocket attack last week that killed an American contractor working in Iraq.
The Pentagon said Soleimani had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the past few months, including on December 27, the day the contractor was killed.
Soleimani also approved the attacks on the US embassy in Baghdad, according to the Pentagon.
Earlier, the U.S. Department of Defence on Thursday said that U.S. forces had carried out a strike that killed Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“At the direction of the President (Donald Trump), the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Soleimani.
“This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans,” said the Pentagon in a statement.
Iraqi State TV reported earlier that an attack near Baghdad International Airport in the Iraqi capital on Friday killed Soleimani along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy chief of Iraq’s paramilitary Hashd al-Shaabi forces.