Secretary of State Pompeo said the United States was watching and decided to launch an air strike to kill General Soleimani to protect the lives of its citizens in the Middle East.

"I can't talk too much about the nature of threats, but Americans should know that President Trump's decision to remove Iranian Generalimani from the battlefield saved their lives," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CNN. today.

US troops raided a convoy near Baghdad airport in Iraq in the morning of January 3, killing Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard, and Iraqi militia commander Ahmed al-Assadi. The Pentagon said Trump's military order to kill Soleimani to prevent attacks on US citizens in Iraq and the Middle East.

"Soleimani is actively involved in a plot to take 'major action' in the region that could put hundreds of lives at risk. Americans in the Middle East are safer after Soleimani's air raid and death." Pompeo said.

Pompeo said the US was monitoring intelligence on Soleimani trips in the region after a US military contractor died in a military base in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, hit rockets on December 27.

"Soleimani makes American citizens more at risk. The US intelligence community judges that if no action is taken, the risk will be huge. President Trump acted decisively last night," Pompeo said.

Pompeo said the US State Department contacted China, Britain and Germany after the attack to "make it clear that the US is committed to reducing escalation in the Middle East".

The US State Department today also called on American citizens in Iraq to return immediately due to escalating tensions in the region. Pompeo said the recommendation was "appropriate to the context and time" but declined to elaborate, and did not say whether the US State Department would evacuate staff at the embassy in Iraq.

Iranian leaders vowed to avenge the death of Generalimimani, while Iraqi Prime Minister also criticized the US air strike, calling it aggressive behavior. Russia expressed concern and called the "killing of General Soleimani an adventure" of the US. China urges the parties to be calm and restrained, opposing the use of force in international relations. France and Germany have warned the situation in the Middle East region of dangerous escalation after the air strike.

Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani is considered the second most powerful official after Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Soleimani played a key role in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, expanded Iran's influence throughout the Middle East and supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government in the civil war since 2011. .

Who was the Iranian General killed by the US?

Risk of US - Iran war

Countries that responded to the death of Iranian generals