Baghdad: The US Embassy here has urged American Citizens to leave Iraq in wake of heightened tensions in the region after a US airstrike near the Baghdad airport killed the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds force and architect of its growing military influence in the Middle East.
American citizens should depart Iraq immediately, the statement read.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran and other “freedom-seeking countries” in the region will take revenge, according to a Tasnin News report.
The overnight attack, authorised by President Donald Trump, marked a dramatic escalation in a "shadow war" in the Middle East between Iran and the United States and its allies, principally Israel and Saudi Arabia.
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.
Responding to the strike, Iraq's prime minister said Washington had violated a deal for keeping US troops in his country.
The Pentagon said the "US military has taken decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad by killing Qassem Soleimani" and that the strike was ordered by Trump to disrupt future Iranian attack plans.
Qassem Soleimani, a legendary figure
Soleimani was a general who was regarded as the second most powerful figure in Iran after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Soleimani became head of the force in 1998, after which he quietly strengthened Iran's ties with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria's government and Shi’ite militia groups in Iraq. Over two decades he had been at the forefront of projecting the Islamic Republic's military influence across the Middle East, acquiring celebrity status at home and abroad.
Analysts say Iran is likely to respond forcefully to the targeting of Soleimani, who had survived several assassination attempts against him by Western, Israeli and Arab agencies over the past two decades.
The slain commander's Quds Force, along with paramilitary proxies from Lebanon's Hezbollah to Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces grouping of Iran-backed battle-hardened militias has ample means to respond.
Top Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an adviser to Soleimani, was also killed in the attack. Muhandis oversaw Iraq's PMF, an alliance of paramilitary groups mostly comprising Iran-backed Shi'ite militias that was formally integrated into Iraqi armed forces.
Hints of disruption to Middle East oil supplies
American nationals working at Iraqi oil fields were evacuating the country, an oil ministry spokesman said. Several had already left on Friday morning and others were preparing to fly out, Assem Jihad told AFP, adding that there was "no impact" on Iraq's oil production.
The number of American staff at fields in OPEC's second-biggest crude producer had already dwindled in recent months as tensions between the US and Iran soared.
Concern about disruption to Middle East oil supplies pushed oil prices up nearly $3.
In September, US officials blamed Iran for a missile and drone attack on oil installations of Saudi state energy giant Saudi Aramco. Iran, for its part, has absorbed scores of air strikes and missile attacks, mainly carried out by Israel against its fighters and proxies in Syria and Iraq.
Calls for revenge
Khamenei said harsh revenge awaited the "criminals" who killed Soleimani. His death, though bitter, would double the motivation of the resistance against the United States and Israel, he said.
In a statement carried by state television he called for three days of national mourning.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi condemned the killings as a violation of the conditions of the US military presence in Iraq and an act of aggression that breached Iraq's sovereignty and would lead to war.
Trump, who is facing impeachment charges, made no immediate comment but posted a picture of the US flag on Twitter.
In the Mideast, the strike provoked waves of shock, fury and fears of worse to come.
The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad condemned what it called criminal US aggression.
Iraq's most powerful Shiite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said in a speech during Friday prayers that the country must brace for "very difficult times."
In Iran, a hard-line adviser to the country's supreme leader who led Friday prayers in Tehran likened US troops in Iraq to insidious beasts" and said they should be swept from the region.
I am telling Americans, especially Trump, we will take a revenge that will change their daylight into to a nighttime darkness," said the cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami.
Esmail Ghaani takes up the mantle
Iran's supreme leader appointed assassinated commander Qassem Soleimani's deputy, Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani, to replace him as head of the country's Quds Forces, Iranian media reported.
The force's programme "will be unchanged from the time of his predecessor," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement published by state media.
Global alarm
Global powers warned Friday that the world has become a more dangerous place and urged restraint after the US assassinated Iran's top general, although Britain and Germany also suggested that Iran shared blame for provoking the targeted killing that dramatically ratcheted up tensions in the Mideast.
China, Russia and France, all permanent members of the UN Security Council, took a dim view of the situation.
But while echoing the concerns of other Security Council members about spiraling tensions, Britain and Germany broke ranks, voicing qualified understanding for the US position. Germany currently sits on the UN Security Council but is not a permanent member.
India calls for peace, stability and security
Reacting to the developments, India on Friday asserted the need for peace, stability and security in the region.
In a statement, the External Affairs Ministry said India has consistently advocated restraint and continues to do so and it is vital that the situation does not escalate further.
The ministry also said that it is "vital that the situation does not escalate further”.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that the US was "committed to de-escalation".
"Thankful that our allies recognize the continuing aggressive threats posed by the Iranian Quds Force," he wrote. "The US remains committed to de-escalation."
(With inputs from agencies)
