Mass evacuation as catastrophic bushfires worsen in Australia - Al Jazeera English

Canberra, Australia - Bushfires continue to ravage the south-east of Australia, with unprecedented heat and drought leading to over 200 fire fronts burning across multiple states.

The catastrophic conditions saw the country's largest peacetime evacuation take place on Friday as towns prepared for the worst.

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With strong winds and temperatures of over 45 degrees Celsius across much of the region, more than 100,000 residents left evacuation zones in the three worst-affected states of New South Wales (NSW), Victoria and South Australia.

Both locals and tourists were strongly encouraged to leave by authorities, or face being stranded once access and supply routes were cut off by fire.

Twelve emergency warnings were issued in NSW and 13 in Victoria, and fire-generated thunderstorms were generated in multiple locations.

A time lapse of the pyrocumulous clouds forming above the Currowan fire this evening. It was recorded at around 7pm January 4 from Suttons Forest looking toward Bowral.
Thanks to Christopher Mortimer.#nswfires #nswrfs https://t.co/cW1VxtNI9c

— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) January 4, 2020

The fires have already burned more than 6 million hectares of land, equivalent to an area twice the size of Belgium or most of Ireland.

At least 23 people have died, dozens more are missing and at least 1,300 homes have been destroyed. Half a billion animals, including native wildlife and farm animals, are estimated to have died.

Towns on the NSW south coast were taken by surprise on New Year's Eve when a huge fire suddenly moved eastwards overnight.

On Saturday, roads were quiet and town centres deserted, but yellow-lidded recycling bins were placed outside homes to indicate where residents were staying to fight embers and spot fires.

Up to 3,000 military reservists were called up to tackle Australia's relentless bushfire crisis on Saturday as tens of thousands of residents fled their homes amid catastrophic conditions [Australian Department of Defence/Handout /AFP]

More than 20 new fires had broken out on the NSW south coast between Batemans Bay and Nowra by mid-afternoon, with flames reaching as high as 40 metres outside Nowra.

Thousands of locals took shelter in evacuation centres and on the beach as "too late to leave" warnings were issued for multiple areas. Telecommunications and electricity remain down in many of the small towns along the coast.

Canberra residents Julie and Jim Stuart left their holiday home at Mossy Point just south of Batemans Bay after days of preparation.

"Our house is on the cliff at Mossy Point," Julie Stuart told Al Jazeera. "If we had stayed, the only escape route would have been over the cliff."

"With the size of the flames and their ferociousness, there is no way we could defend our area if needed," she said. Her husband had initially wanted to stay but reconsidered after authorities warned them Mossy Point was likely "going to go".

'Completely unprecedented'

In Victoria, over 1,100 people and 115 pets were evacuated by two Australian Navy ships from the Gippsland town of Mallacoota.

They arrived in Hastings near Melbourne after sailing for 16 hours. More than 4,000 people have been isolated in Mallacoota since a massive firefront swept through on Monday night, when they were forced to shelter from the flames on the town's wharf and beach.

"It's a mass relocation of a nature which is completely unprecedented in Gippsland's history," said the local member of parliament, Darren Chester.

'Worst on record': Thousands flee as Australia's bushfires spread

In Canberra, the nation's capital, the temperature hit 43.6 degrees Celsius in the city centre on Saturday, breaking previous records from 1968 and 1969.

In one of the few positives to be found, air quality improved after two days of the world's worst air pollution according to AirVisual.

Smoke from nearby bushfires had been so bad that MRI machines at the Canberra Hospital were rendered unusable and Australia Post stopped deliveries.

Hardware and pharmaceutical shops sold out of protective face masks, while supermarkets on the capital's outskirts were emptied of food and water as locals prepared for the worst, fearing a repeat of the devastating 2003 bushfires.

In the nearby Snowy Mountains, also designated an evacuation region, ski resorts turned on their snow machines to protect infrastructure.

Fire crews were pulled out mid-afternoon from multiple areas in the Snowy Mountains as wind gusts of up to 60km/h began pushing fires rapidly forward and shooting embers far ahead of fronts. Electricity was affected in the region when the fire took out two electricity substations just before 6pm.

Troops to be deployed

Meanwhile, in the state of South Australia, a bushfire on Kangaroo Island had burned across at least 100,000 hectares of the island.

Two people were found dead in their burnt-out car, and the territories of large numbers of native animals, including endangered species such as dunnarts, bandicoots and Australia's only chlamydia-free koala population, have been ravaged.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been criticised for a slow and inadequate response to the bushfires. Morrison received a cold reception from residents of destroyed NSW town Cobargo on Friday, with locals and Rural Fire Service (RFS) firefighters refusing to shake his hand and accusing him of ignoring pleas for increased assistance prior to this fire season.

On Saturday afternoon, the federal government announced that 3,000 defence force reservists would be deployed to assist evacuation and recovery efforts. This is the first time in Australian history that a compulsory call-out has been issued for reservists.

For many Australians, both federal and state government responses were unsatisfactory. Writer Erin Riley established an online "find a bed" service for evacuees in Victoria and NSW at the end of last week when she learned just how many people needed temporary accommodation.

"Many people who have evacuated have done so with pets, or would rather stay in their community than go further away," Riley said. "We've had an overwhelming response, with almost 3000 Australians so far volunteering to open their homes."

On Saturday evening, NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told the media that a southerly wind change coming through could complicate the situation overnight.

"We are getting reports of significant damage and destruction ... in a number of these different fireground locations, given the speed and ferocity at which these fires are burning," Fitzsimmons said. "And I think we do, unfortunately, need to be ready [for bad news], probably tomorrow morning."

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2020-01-04 12:16:00Z
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Cries of ‘Revenge Is Coming’ at Funerals for Slain Commanders in Iraq - The New York Times

BAGHDAD — As Iraq held joint funeral services on Saturday for two revered military leaders killed in an American drone strike near the Baghdad airport this past week, tens of thousands of pro-Iranian fighters marched down the streets of Baghdad, waving flags and chanting, “Revenge is coming” to the United States.

The surprise killing on Friday of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force and one of the most powerful figures in the region, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi-Iranian deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Forces, the armed groups that are part of the Iraqi security forces, sent shock waves across the Middle East.

It also raised fears that the shadow war that had been building in the region between the United States and Iran could suddenly escalate into a major conflict.

General Suleimani, 62, was the architect of Iran’s network of ties with militant groups across the region, including in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

The extent of that network added to uncertainty about how Iran might respond to his killing. Tehran could do so from any of those places by targeting United States forces, or their allies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia or other countries in the Persian Gulf.

But even as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promised “forceful revenge” for the killing of General Suleimani, experts said it remained unclear whether Iran would make good on its threats. They noted that the country had to balance its need to show resolve against a staunch enemy and its reluctance to thrust itself into a full-scale war with the United States, a much stronger power.

The funerals were held against a backdrop of extreme regional tension as Iran and the United States signaled they could be on the brink of a potentially catastrophic war. Since the killing of General Suleimani and Mr. al-Muhandis, neither side has made another move — although both have made threats.

At the joint funerals, as close to a state ceremony as any since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a key pillar of Iran’s regional reach was on display in Baghdad. The mobilization fighters, faces somber and almost all dressed in black, carried a vast array of flags representing their different groups.

They chanted: “The blood of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis will not be spilled in vain. Revenge is coming.”

Precisely what kind of revenge was planned was not clear. But without giving details, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander was quoted on Saturday by the Tasnim news agency as saying that Iran would punish Americans wherever they are within reach of the Islamic Republic in retaliation for the killing of General Suleimani.

Gen. Gholamali Abuhamzeh, the commander of the Guards in the southern province of Kerman, raised the prospect of possible attacks on ships in the Gulf.

Iran reserved the right to take revenge against the United States for the death of Soleimani, he said in comments made late on Friday and reported on Saturday by Tasnim.

“The Strait of Hormuz is a vital point for the West, and a large number of American destroyers and warships cross there,” he said. “Vital American targets in the region have been identified by Iran since long time ago, some 35 U.S. targets in the region as well as Tel Aviv are within our reach.”

The loss of Mr. al-Muhandis was a profound one for the Iraqi fighters who saw him not just as a militia leader close to Iran, but also as someone who had helped rally the armed groups when they first formed in 2014 to fight the Islamic State. The extremists were then threatening to sweep from the north to Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

Many proclaimed during his funeral: “Our men do not fear America; each man dies on his day. Your voice, Abu Mahdi, remains the loudest one.”

General Suleimani’s body will be taken to Najaf, Iraq, a prominent Shiite burial place, then flown to Mashhad, Iran, on Sunday for a funeral service. A large state service is expected in Tehran on Monday, and the general is expected to be buried in his hometown, Kerman, on Tuesday, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported.

Amid the tensions, the United States has called on its citizens to leave Iraq, shuttered its embassy in Baghdad, sent additional Marines and on Thursday deployed 700 members of the 82nd Airborne Division to the region.

After the strike, President Trump said the attack had been intended “to stop a war” and warned Iran that the United States military had already identified targets for further strikes “if Americans anywhere are threatened.”

Among those attending the funeral on Saturday were Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi of Iraq and a number of senior Shiite leaders, including Ammar al-Hakim; Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a former prime minister; Falih Al Fayad, the national security adviser; and Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the Badr Organization, which is both a political party and has one of the largest and oldest militias.

Missing from the cortege were Qais al-Khazali, the leader of one of the most notorious pro-Iran militias in Iraq, Asaib al-Haq; and Hamid al-Jazaeri, who leads the Khorasani Brigades, a pro-Iran militia.

Mr. Abdul Mahdi looked visibly upset as he walked surrounded by security officers in a sea of militia fighters. As Iraq’s leader, he has been caught between Iran, its neighbor, and the United States as the two have ratcheted up their confrontations.

The latest conflict started with a rocket attack a week ago that killed an American contractor working at an Iraqi military base in the north of the country. That was followed by an American attack on five Popular Mobilization militia bases in western Iraq and Syria that killed more than 24 people and set in motion the events that led to a nearly two-day siege of the United States Embassy in Baghdad.

After the funerals on Saturday, some mourners tried to again enter the Green Zone, the seat of the Iraqi government and many embassies. But they were pushed back, in contrast to a violent attack on Tuesday, when pro-Iranian protesters pushed past guards and laid siege to the American Embassy, effectively imprisoning diplomats inside, burning and looting the reception area and climbing inside the compound.

In Iran, the news media flooded its broadcasts and front pages with coverage of General Suleimani’s death, and even news outlets perceived to be more moderate called for revenge.

When President Hassan Rouhani of Iran paid his condolences on Saturday during a visit to General Suleimani’s home, he, too, spoke of revenge — but with an open-ended timeline.

“The Americans did not realize what a great mistake they made,” Mr. Rouhani said. “They will see the effects of this criminal act, not only today, but for years to come.”

Alissa J. Rubin and Falih Hassan reported from Baghdad, and Ben Hubbard from Beirut.

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2020-01-04 12:02:00Z
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Australia's fires could change the country forever - NBC News

Wildfires are a part of the natural rhythms of Australia’s environment. But scientists haven’t seen anything like this before.

The country is grappling with some of the worst wildfires in its history. At least 12 million acres of land have already been scorched and more than 100 blazes are still active — and the season has yet to reach its peak.

The blazes threaten to reshape Australia’s ecology even in places where plants and animals have adapted to yearly fires.

“If species are adapted to one set of climatic conditions and are now being forced to regenerate in climatic conditions that are very different, it’s going to be a lot harder to come back,” said Camille Stevens-Rumann, an ecologist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, who focuses her research on how ecosystems recover after major disturbances.

The impact of these fires is also providing a stark warning about the kinds of natural disasters that can be exacerbated by climate change, which is lengthening wildfire seasons in Australia, according to Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

“It’s really shocking and really horrible and as much as I hate to say ‘I told you so,’ climate scientists have been warning about this for a very long time — especially in Australia,” she said. “We knew that if we have drought and a heat wave, the whole country is a tinderbox. We knew it was going to happen.”

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She said the biggest wildfires of the season typically break out in January or February, rather than in the spring.

These earlier-than-usual blazes could portend a worrisome trend that is echoed around the world.

“If you look at places like Portugal and Spain, they are seeing fires during the year when they didn’t historically see them,” Stevens-Rumann said. “In California, it’s hard to find a month where there isn’t a bad fire. This is one of those big concerns with climate change, that these fires are going to continue to be an issue.”

Jan. 3, 202001:50

The ability of animals to recover from Australia’s wildfires is also a concern. Scientists are estimating that more than half a billion animals have already died in the fires, a figure thatStuart Blanch, a forest and woodland conservation policy manager at the World Wildlife Fund-Australia, called conservative.

The estimate, based on the findings of a 2007 WWF-Australia report by Chris Dickman, a professor of ecology at the University of Sydney, noted that human activities — including the bulldozing of forests and other deforestation practices — had already taken a toll on many species.

Blanch said animals generally recover over the subsequent years and decades, but he added that Australia has not dealt with fires of this size and intensity before, and there are concerns that entire species or subspecies will be wiped out.

“Ecologists have much lower confidence that wildlife populations — particularly the 1,000 threatened species across the continent — will recover from such widespread and utter forest devastation,” he told NBC News in an email.

Climate change is adding further chaos to the system. As the planet warms and sea levels rise, some natural habitats are being permanently altered, outpacing the ability of plants and animals to adjust.

Blanch said it has been tough watching the catastrophic fires play out in Australia. “It is like a punch in the guts, nearly every day,” he said. “But I continue to have hope, and do not give into despair.”

Some plants, such as the eucalyptus trees native to Australia, grow back quickly after wildfires. Within weeks of a blaze, eucalyptus can sprout green leaves almost miraculously from blackened trunks, Stevens-Rumann said.

“Wildfires have been a part of the Earth’s ecosystem since there was plant material to burn,” she said. “We’re all adapted to a certain amount of disturbance. I can get a certain number of colds per year and be okay, but if I’m sick for eight months in a row, that’s really going to wear on me. That’s the same thing with an ecosystem.”

Denise Chow

Denise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on the environment and space. 

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2020-01-04 11:17:00Z
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Fears of all-out war grow after U.S. kills Iran Gen. Qasem Soleimani - USA TODAY

Kim Hjelmgaard USA TODAY

Published 7:12 AM EST Jan 4, 2020

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations said Saturday "the response for a military action is military action," as fears grew that a U.S. airstrike that killed the head of Tehran's elite Quds force and mastermind of its security and intelligence strategy will draw Washington and the Middle East region into a broader military conflict. 

Iran has already vowed an unspecified harsh retaliation for the killing of Gen. Qasem Soleimani near the Iraqi capital's international airport. President Donald Trump said he ordered the strike to prevent a conflict with Iran because Soleimani was plotting attacks that endangered American troops and officials.

No evidence was provided. 

Angry protests erupt: U.S. kills Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani

Analysts said that because Iran can't match the U.S.'s military strength its potential targets for revenge range from rocket attacks on U.S. allies such as Israel to sabotaging oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway for oil supplies.

It could also embark on a sustained campaign of cyber-warfare or target American citizens and troops abroad near embassies and consulates or military installations. 

It "not play out on U.S. televisions as some grand campaign. It will be asymmetric and messy, playing out on shipping lanes and computer servers," said Gregory Brew, a historian of Iran and its oil industry, in a social media post.

Richard N. Haass, a former U.S. diplomat who worked for both Presidents Bush, said that the "region (and possibly the world) will be the battlefield."

But comments from Iran's New York-based envoy to the UN, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, that "we have to act and we will act" further raise the prospect of an all-out war. "The U.S. started the economic war in May 2018 and last night they started a military war by an act of terror against one of our top generals," Takht-Ravanchi said in remarks published by Iranian state media.

Qasem Soleimani:Pentagon tracked Iran general for years before he was killed

Trump abandoned a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers 18 months ago, reinstating sanctions on Iran's economy and oil sector. Soleimani's killing comes after months of rising tensions and tit-for-tat hostilities between the U.S. and Iran resulting from Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear accord negotiated by President Obama. Among the hostilities: downing each other's drones in the Persian Gulf. Washington also accuses Iran of being behind a series of attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities in September, and of sabotaging and detaining allied oil tankers in the region in May and June.  

The envoy's remarks come as thousands of mourners marched in a funeral procession through Baghdad for Iran's top general and Iraqi militant leaders –including Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, the leader of a pro-Iran militia group in Iraq – who were killed alongside Soleimani. The mourners chanted "Death to America, death to Israel" while carrying pictures of the two men. 

Iraq's prime minister joined the procession, according to Iran Front Page, a privately-held Iranian website that publishes news about Iran in English. 

There also appeared to be some celebrations in Baghdad over Soleimani's death, a point highlighted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. For while Soleimani was a consequential figure who was respected and feared in equal measure, he was also, as the former journalist and Middle East expert Kim Ghattas writes on the website of the Atlantic magazine, responsible for upholding "a repressive system and was seen as the man responsible for Iran's role in costly wars abroad."

Soleimani's body will later be returned to Iran on Monday for a funeral and burial in his hometown, Kerman, in central Iran. 

As the head of Quds Force, a branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Soleimani directed pro-Iranian militias or proxies from Lebanon to Yemen. At the time of his death, he was managing and mobilizing militias across Iraq, including groups responsible for a recent siege on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. 

Timeline: How tensions escalated with Iran since Trump exited nuke deal

Osamah Khalil, a Middle East expert at Syracuse University, said that the killings of Soleimani and Al-Muhandis, "were a dangerous and ill-advised escalation by the United States. Their deaths will make it more difficult to resolve the ongoing tensions between Washington and Tehran and will only destabilize Iraq further."

Khalil added: "Rather than ending the endless wars as he promised, President Trump's actions have ensured more conflict and instability."

A day after the attack on Soleimani, Iraqi television said an airstrike hit two cars carrying Iran-backed militants north of Baghdad, killing six people. The U.S. military said it was not responsible for the new strike. The Pentagon has deployed an extra 3,000 troops to the Middle East to help respond to any backlash. 

Fabian Hinz, a Berlin-based expert in missile proliferation and Iran's military, said that while U.S. military technology and hardware capabilities far exceed Iran's, in the event of a full-blown conventional conflict a quagmire can be expected, and that Iran would likely restart its mothballed nuclear weapons program, undercutting the rationale for Trump's decision to pull out of the accord.

"Iran would likely rely mostly on asymmetric capabilities in any conflict," said Hinz. "This will include ballistic missiles, proxy militias, naval swarming attacks, mini-submarines, drones and cyberattacks." 

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2020-01-04 10:04:05Z
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At Baghdad funeral procession for Qasim Soleimani, calls for retaliation against the United States - The Washington Post

Wissm Al-Okili Reuters Mourners attend the funeral of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, top commander of the elite Quds Forces, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

BAGHDAD — Amid calls for revenge, funeral processions were held early Saturday for Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a powerful Iraqi militia leader, who were killed by an American drone strike on the orders of President Trump.

Thousands of mourners joined the procession waving the Iraqi flag and the banners of the Iraqi paramilitary forces that are backed by Iran and known collectively as the Hashd al-Shaabi. As it set out from the central Baghdad neighborhood of Kadhimiya, officials from Iraq and Iran, along with militia leaders, were seen making their way through the throngs flanked by burly guards.

Helicopters shadowed the crowds. “Death to America, death to Israel,” people chanted. “We will take our revenge!”

Iran has vowed to retaliate against the U.S. for the killing of Soleimani, Tehran’s most powerful military commander, as the Trump administration has said it is sending thousands of new troops to the Middle East. The looming confrontation has left the region bracing for an escalation of violence, and Iraq, caught between its allies in Tehran and Washington, fears the country will be at the center of the storm.

The funeral was “an opportunity,” said a young militiaman wearing a camouflage hat, interviewed on local Iraqi television. “The resistance is united, against the enemies of Islam, and the enemies of humanity,” he said, singling out the United States.

A spokesman for the U. S-led military coalition against the Islamic State said that “we have increased security and defensive measures at the Iraqi bases that host anti-ISIS Coalition troops. Our command places protection of US Forces, as well as our allies and security partners in the Coalition as the top priority; we remain vigilant and resolute.”

The Pentagon said on Friday that it was preparing to deploy an additional 3,500 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to the region. According to two defense officials, the military also has put hundreds of soldiers from the Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade in Italy on alert for potential deployment.

Trump told reporters Friday that the United States had killed Soleimani in a bid to “stop a war.” The president, speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, urged Iran not to retaliate. “We did not take action to start a war,” he said.

The drone attack, early Friday local time, struck a two-car convoy on an access road near Baghdad International Airport and also killed several of Soleimani’s local allies. Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi called the attack “an assassination” that was in “flagrant violation of the conditions authorizing the presence of U.S. troops” on Iraqi soil.

Soleimani joined Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a young man and took control of the Quds Force, its special operations wing, in the late 1990s. Under his command, the force built alliances across the region by paying for weapons and providing strategic guidance. Soleimani was regularly photographed on visits to affiliated militias in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere, burnishing his reputation as a talismanic operator with influence across the Middle East.

The U.S. strike killed some of the Quds Forces’ key allies, including Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, a powerful Iraqi militia leader better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy leader of the Hashd al-Shaabi militias. Ibrahimi would be buried the sacred Shiite city of Najaf later on Saturday, officials said, and Soleimani’s body was scheduled to be flown back to Iran for burial there.

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Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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2020-01-04 10:00:00Z
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Crowds gather in Baghdad to mourn military leaders killed by US airstrike - CNN International

Thousands of Iraqis are marching through Baghdad right now, part of a funeral procession for Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani -- who were both killed yesterday in the US air strike.

Mourners at a funeral procession in Kadhimiya, Baghdad, on January 4, 2020. Photo: SABAH ARAR/AFP/Getty Images

A car carrying Soleimani's coffin, with a bouquet of flowers on the hood, is passing slowly through the Baghdad crowd.

Mourners surround a car carrying the coffin of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, on January 4, 2020. Photo: SABAH ARAR/AFP via Getty Images

A procession is also happening in the Iraqi city of Karbala, and crowds are growing bigger.

Mourners wave the national flag and the militia flag, and carry portraits of the two men. There is grief, but also anger -- many are chanting "Death to America" as they march.

Mourners carry flags and the portrait Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani. Photo: SABAH ARAR/AFP via Getty Images

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2020-01-04 09:03:00Z
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US killed top Iranian commander to stop a war, Trump says as 3,000 American troops head to the region - CNN

The US will deploy the troops following a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport that killed military commander Qasem Soleimani, a defense official told CNN.

The troops will come from the Immediate Response Force of the 82nd Airborne Division. CNN has previously reported the forces had been placed on prepare-to-deploy orders.

After hundreds of protesters targeted the US Embassy compound in Baghdad this week, the US sent in 750 troops from the same unit and said additional deployments were possible. The new deployment will encompass the rest of the brigade -- about 3,000 soldiers.

The decision comes after Trump said he ordered the precision strike to kill Soleimani, who was plotting "imminent and sinister attacks" on Americans, adding the decision was one of deterrence rather than aggression.

"We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war," Trump said in a statement from his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday, a day after the airstrike in the Iraqi capital.

Soleimani was the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, and became the architect of Tehran's proxy conflicts in the Middle East. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis -- the deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) -- was also killed.

The Trump administration viewed Soleimani as a ruthless killer, and the President told reporters Friday that the general should have been taken out by previous presidents.

The Pentagon blamed Soleimani for hundreds of deaths of Americans and their allies. "General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region," the Pentagon said, calling the strike "decisive defensive" action aimed at deterring future Iranian attacks.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the strike had thwarted an "imminent" attack in the region, but declined to give any details on the intelligence on which he based his statement.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat and member of the Appropriations Committee, said the strike will increase threats to US interests from across Middle East.

"Today the administration announced we're sending 3,000 more troops to the region," he said. "So clearly the administration recognizes that this action has actually dramatically increased the risks in the Middle East, increased the risks of an attack from Iran and it should be no surprise to anybody who has followed these issues that Iran does mean what it says when it says this is essentially tantamount to an act of war."

Iran says it will fight back

In a letter to the United Nations, Iran described the attack as state terrorism and an unlawful criminal act.

It was "tantamount to opening a war," Majid Takht Ravanchi, Iran's ambassador to the UN, told CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."

"The response for a military action is a military action. By whom? When? Where? That is for the future to witness," he said.

He said the strike had escalated a war that started when Iran pulled out of a nuclear deal with Tehran in 2018.

"The US has started the economic war in -- in May 2018. Last night, they started a military war. By assassinating, by an act of terror, against one of our top generals," he told CNN.

Iran and its allies condemned the strike as an "assassination," while European officials and the UN called for de-escalation.

The Pentagon blamed Soleimani and his Quds Force for recent attacks on coalition bases in Iraq, including the December 27 strike that culminated in the deaths of an American contractor and Iraqi personnel. It also blamed him for the US Embassy attack in Baghdad on December 31.

At least six people were killed in the strike, an Iraqi security source told CNN on condition of anonymity.

Funeral processions will be held for Soleimani in both Iran and Iraq, Iranian state media reported. Iran will hold three days of national mourning, with people also gathering in Baghdad on Saturday to pay tribute to all the officials killed.

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has vowed "harsh revenge," according to a statement on his official website.

"His pure blood was shed in the hands of the most depraved of human beings," Khamenei said.

Maj. Gen. Ismail Qaani, who served for years alongside Soleimani, has been appointed as his replacement.

Some US officials are bracing for Iran to retaliate with a cyber attack, but Iran has shown it is also capable of engaging in another form of online warfare: social media disinformation campaigns. Authorities were on Saturday increasing vigilance and fortifying defenses.

CNN's Ryane Browne, Zachary Cohen, Hamdi Alkhshali, Kareem Khadder and Angela Dewan contributed to this report

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2020-01-04 07:49:00Z
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