UPDATE - Trump says Soleimani killed to stop war, not start one

ADDS MORE TRUMP QUOTES

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The U.S. killed a top Iranian general responsible for orchestrating Tehran's regional operations "to stop a war," not start one, President Donald Trump said Friday.

Trump accused Qasem Soleimani of planning "imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel," but he did not elaborate on what they may have been, only saying that he had been "caught in the act."

"What the United States did yesterday should have been done long ago," Trump said at his Florida resort, referring to Soleimani's assassination. "A lot of lives would have been saved."

The president did not take questions after delivering brief remarks on the killing, but he insisted the U.S. is not seeking regime change in Iran despite killing Tehran's chief foreign military operations planner.

Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' elite Quds Force, was killed early Friday morning in a U.S. airstrike outside of Baghdad's airport. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a senior commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) was also killed in the airstrike.

Soleimani's slaying marks a dramatic escalation in tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which have often been at a fever pitch since President Donald Trump chose in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw the U.S. from the nuclear pact world powers struck with Tehran.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who gave Soleimani the country’s highest honor last year, vowed “severe retaliation” in response to his killing as Trump struck a hawkish tone of defiance.

Following the death of an American contractor in rocket attacks on a U.S. base in Iraq, Washington carried out a series of strikes on Sunday that led to the deaths of at least 25 fighters from the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group.

The strikes were the first major attack by the U.S. on an Iran-linked group since the withdrawal of troops from Iraq in 2011.

The U.S. embassy in Baghdad was then attacked by a large crowd of angry protesters on Tuesday, leading to a two-day standoff between U.S. forces and protesters.

The Pentagon accused Soleimani of plotting the embassy attack and planning to carry out additional attacks on U.S. diplomats and service members in Iraq and the region.