Iranian leaders pledged a “forceful revenge” for the death of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the top military leader of Iran, who was killed by an American drone overnight in Baghdad. On Friday, President Trump defended the airstrike. “We took action last night to stop a war, we did not take action to start a war,” he said. Above, Iranians mourned General Suleimani’s death in Tehran. General Suleimani, the intelligence chief who led Iran’s Quds Force, was a powerful and shadowy spymaster who helped direct the Syrian civil war and had a role in hundreds of American deaths in Iraq, among other military efforts.

Source: New York Times January 03, 2020 22:52 UTC