US turns more aggressive; Six people killed in another airstrike on pro-Iran militia in Baghdad

Baghdad, January 4: Just one day after a US airstrike killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, a new air strike has targeted a convoy of pro-Iran militiamen late on Friday on Taji road north of Baghdad. The strike targeted Iran-backed Shiite militia leaders near camp Taji north of Baghdad, killing six people and critically wounding three. 

 

 

 

It follows a U.S. airstrike at the Baghdad airport early on Friday that killed Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces militia umbrella group in Iraq.

 

Senator James Rich, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that he had been briefed on the latest strike north of Baghdad. Rich said that the strike occurred at about 1.15am Saturday Baghdad time. 

 

Over the last two decades, Soleimani had assembled a network of heavily armed allies stretching all the way to southern Lebanon, on Israel's doorstep. The U.S. said it was sending nearly 3,000 more Army troops to the Middle East, reflecting concern about potential Iranian retaliation for the killing of Soleimani. The U.S. also urged American citizens to leave Iraq 'immediately' following the early morning airstrike at Baghdad's international airport that killed Soleimani and nine others. 

 

 

 

Iran's U.N. ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said in an interview with CNN on Friday that the strike killing Soleimani was tantamount to declaring war. He said that by 'assassinating' Soleimani, the United States had entered a new stage after starting an 'economic war' by imposing tough sanctions on Iran in 2018.

 

President Donald Trump, who personally gave the order for the drone strike that killed Soleimani, charged him with plotting attacks on Americans and said the action was taken to prevent war. 'We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war,' the president said in brief remarks at Mar-a-Lago on Friday.

 

 

 

'We do not seek regime change. However, the Iranian regime's aggression in the region including use of proxy fighters to destabilize its neighbors must end and must end now. The future belongs to the people of Iran,' Trump said. 

 

The latest American strike comes amid rapidly escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran and fears of an all-out war. The targeted strike against Soleimani and any retaliation by Iran, could ignite a conflict that engulfs the whole region, endangering U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and beyond.