Baghdad: The US embassy in Baghdad urged American citizens in Iraq on Friday to "depart immediately", for fear of fallout from a US strike that killed top Iranian commander of the Islamic republic's Quds Force, General Qasem Soleimani, in Baghdad.
“US citizens should depart via airline while possible, and failing that, to other countries via land," the embassy said in a statement. The US strike hit outside Baghdad airport early Friday but security sources told AFP it was still open to flights.
Soleimani was one of the most popular figures in Iran and seen as a deadly adversary by America and its allies. Top Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an adviser to Soleimani, was also killed in the attack.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed "severe revenge" after the move. “Martyrdom was the reward for his ceaseless efforts in all these years," Khamenei said on his Farsi-language Twitter account in reference to Soleimani, also declaring three days of mourning.
"With him gone, God willing, his work and his path will not be stopped, but severe revenge awaits the criminals who bloodied their foul hands with his blood and other martyrs' in last night's incident".
Khamenei called Soleimani the "international face of the resistance" and said he was killed by "the most cruel of those on earth". All people who back the resistance would be his "avengers", he added.
Iran has been locked in a long conflict with the United States that escalated sharply last week with an attack on the US embassy in Iraq by pro-Iranian militiamen following a US air raid on the Kataib Hezbollah militia, founded by Muhandis.
“At the direction of the president, the US military has taken decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad by killing Qassem Soleimani," the Pentagon said in a statement. "This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans," it added.
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