The White House said Donald Trump ordered the air strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in the early hours of Friday. In the attack at Baghdad airport, the Pentagon said that Soleimani’s associate, deputy head of the Popular Mobilisation Units (Hashd al-Shaabi), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandes, was also killed.

General Soleimani was commander of the Quds Force, the elite, external wing of the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which the Trump administration designated as a terror organisation in April last year.

After a flag of the United States, a short message was posted by Trump, which said, “Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation.”

A following post by Trump read:

“General Qassem Soleimani has killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans over an extended period of time, and was plotting to kill many more...but got caught! He was directly and indirectly responsible for the death of millions of people, including the recent large number of protesters killed in Iran itself. While Iran will never be able to properly admit it, Soleimani was both hated and feared within the country. They are not nearly as saddened as the leaders will let the outside world believe. He should have been taken out many years ago!”