Iran Guards ex-head vows 'revenge' on US over Qasem Soleimani death

Tehran, Jan 03: A former head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said revenge would be exacted on the United States for killing the commander of its Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, in Baghdad on Friday.

"Soleimani joined his martyr brothers but we will exact terrible vengeance upon America," Mohsen Rezai, who currently heads the Expediency Council, wrote on Twitter.

US President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Iran Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, who died in Baghdad "in a decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad," the Pentagon said. "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 Defence said. Following Soleimani's death, Trump tweeted an image of the US flag without any further explanation.

The strike, which occurred at Baghdad's international airport on Friday in Iraq, also killed the deputy chief of Iraq's powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force. A pro-Iran mob this week laid siege to the US embassy following deadly American airstrikes on a hardline Hashed faction. The US had called the strikes in response to a rocket attack days earlier that had killed an American contractor working in Iraq.