Baghdad | Jagran News Desk: A US airstrike at Baghdad's international airport on Friday killed eight people, including General Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, the Hashed al-Shaabi military force announced.
"The deputy head of the Hashed, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and head of the Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, were killed in a US strike that targeted their car on the Baghdad International Airport road," the group said in a statement.
Pentagon officials confirmed that the targeted attack was carried out on the orders of US President Donald Trump.
"General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more," the Department of Defense said.
The White House said that the Iranian commander was killed in a "decisive defensive action" on the orders of Trump.
"At the direction of the President, 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 US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region," said a statement by the White House.
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Hours after the incident, US President Donald Trump posted picture of the American flag after the killing of senior Iran and Iraq commanders in the airstrike.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2020
Iran's foreign minister slammed the killing of Soleimani as a dangerous escalation and warned the United States would bear responsibility for the consequences.
"The US' act of international terrorism, targeting and assassinating General Soleimani... is extremely dangerous and a foolish escalation," Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter.
"The US bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism," he added.
Mohsen Rezaei, former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, said: "He joined his martyred brothers, but we will take vigorous revenge on America."
Iraq’s military said that the international airport was targeted with a volley of missiles just after midnight. The rockets targeted a Hashed convoy and left eight people dead, including “important figures”.
The deaths are a potential turning point in the Middle East and are expected to draw severe retaliation from Iran and the forces it backs in the Middle East against Israel and American interests.
The Hashed is a network of mostly-Shiite armed units, many of whom have very close ties to Tehran, who have been officially incorporated into Iraq's state security forces.
Muhandis is the Hashed's deputy chief but is widely recognised as the real shot-caller within the group.
He has been blacklisted by the US.
Soleimani heads the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force and also serves as Iran's pointman on Iraq.
On Tuesday, a mob of Hashed supporters surrounded the US embassy in outrage over American air strikes that killed 25 fighters from the network's hardline Kataeb Hezbollah faction, which is backed by Iran.
The US had acted in response to a rocket attack days earlier that had killed an American contractor working in Iraq.