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U.S President Donald Trump insisted the U.S killed Qassem Soleimani to stop a war not start one. He also warned Iran against retaliating over the targeted killing of its top military leader. Trump delivered his first public comments since the Quds Force leader was killed at Baghdad airport alongside an Iraqi militia leader, in an airstrike carried out by a Reaper drone. President claimed he wasn’t trying to exacerbate an already tense situation. Trump said at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, “Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel but we caught him in the act and terminated him. We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war. He should have been taken out many years ago”.

The appearance of the U.S President pointedly didn’t take questions from reporters. It is noteworthy that Trump has already deployed 3,500 more troops to the Middle East. The U.S civilians have been warned to return from Iraq. The U.S state department was scrambling to bolster the safety and security of its diplomats overseas as Iran threatened about harsh revenge. Soleimani was a 62-year-old Iranian general who headed the overseas arm of the Revolutionary Guards. He was known as the 2^nd most powerful figure in Iran after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The overnight attack was authorized by the U.S President.

The U.S secretary of state Mike Pompeo also said the strike was designed to disrupt an imminent attack that would have endangered Americans in the Middle East. Point to be noted that Democratic critics called the U.S President reckless and said he has increased the risk of more violence in a dangerous region. Pompeo claimed in interviews with U.S broadcasters that it was the intelligence-based assessment and drove the decision to target Soleimani. Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien said on Friday, the operation against Suleimani was designed to avoid further bloodshed.