Iran: US gov’t, not just Trump, blamed for Soleimani killing

Tehran – Iran – Iran blames the United States government, not just President Donald Trump, for the killing of Major-General Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said. Soleimani, thought to be the second most powerful man in Iran, was travelling with a convoy carrying an Iraqi commander and others on January 3 near Baghdad airport when a US drone strike ordered by Trump hit them. The US president, who had not notified US Congress of the strike, claimed Soleimani was “plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel”. “The US is responsible for the cowardly, dastardly, late-night, in another country assassination [of Soleimani],” Iranian official Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Tuesday. “On the national level, it is the US government that must answer for this. We don’t recognise an individual called Trump. We recognise the US president.” Days after the killing, Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at two US bases in Iraq, leaving more than 100 US soldiers with traumatic brain injuries. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">