Iran threatens crushing revenge on US after killing of top army commander

TEHRAN - Anxiety has eclipsed peace in the Middle East following Friday's killing of General Qassem Soleimani, a key government operative in Tehran.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of "severe revenge" for 'the criminals who bloodied their foul hands with his (Soleimani's) blood'.

His Defense Minister Amir Hatami said vengeance would be 'crushing'. The minister termed the killing "cowardly", adding that it was unprecedented.

The Pentagon said US President Donald Trump ordered Soleimani's "killing," after a pro-Iran mob this week laid siege to the US embassy.

Early this week, dozens of people were killed at Baghdad in the US embassy, with Washington state blaming Tehran for the chaos.

Iranian state television carried a statement by the Revolutionary Guard Corps saying Soleimani "was martyred in an attack by America on Baghdad airport this morning."

"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," it said.

Soleimani has been an instrumental government operative in Tehran, who is popular among citizens and the army. He was key in security decisions.

The US airstrike hit Soleimani in a convoy at Baghdad Airport, a move that has also been condemned by Iraqi, which said the "attack interferes with our sovereignty".

President Hassan Rouhani added that Soleimani's "martyrdom ... by the aggressor and criminal America has saddened the heart of the nation of Iran and all the nations of the region."

"There is no doubt that the great nation of Iran and the other free nations of the region will take revenge for this gruesome crime from criminal America," Rouhani added.

Already, the US has asked her citizens to immediately leave Iraq, arguing that the order should be implemented without any further delay.

State Department on Friday also insisted that US citizens should keep off the embassy, which could be targeted by Iran.

The Pentagon said Soleimani had been "actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region."

On Thursday, the US said: "At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Quasem Soleimani."

Soleimani, who made his name as the head of Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been instrumental in keeping ISIS and Al-Qaida at bay in the Middle East.

Analysts say that his murder by the US is "a big gamble which could in long run destabilize the entire Middle East which has been a hotbed of war".

During President Barack Obama's regime, the US signed a peace deal with Iran which would be later discarded by President Donald Trump.

Iran has been on US radar over the alleged manufacturing of nuclear weapons, which Tehran has often defended as a "nuclear energy project".

GAROWE ONLINE