WASHINGTON _ Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general who led the Revolutionary Guards' Quds force, has been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, according to two people familiar with the development.
The attack occurred near Baghdad international airport. Details about the assault remained unclear, but one of the people said an Iraqi militia leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was also killed.
A strong Iranian response appears certain as tensions escalate between Tehran and Washington. Earlier in the evening, Iraqi security forces said in a statement that the airport had been struck by rockets.
Soleimani, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war, is a household name in Iran where he's feted for helping defeat Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and largely keeping the group out of Iranian territory.
He's been sanctioned by the U.S. since 2007 and last May Washington designated the Revolutionary Guards Corp in its entirety a foreign terrorist organization, the first time the label has been applied to an official state institution or a country's security forces.
The assault in Baghdad marked the latest in a series of violent episodes that have strained already hostile relations between Iran and the U.S. that began last week when an American contractor was killed in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk.
The killing of the contractor led to a rare, direct American assault on an Iran-backed militia in Iraq. The response _ an attack on the embassy _ threatened to spiral into a broader confrontation that could drag in other Middle East nations.
Earlier Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters at the Pentagon that the American military was moving from responding to Iranian-backed attacks to anticipating them.
"There are some indications out there that they may be planning additional attacks. That's nothing new," Esper said. "If that happens, then we will act and, by the way, if we get word of an attack of some kind of indication, we would take preemptive action as well to protect American forces, American lives. The game has changed."
The latest violence in Iraq occurred in the wake of widespread anti-government protests that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
Roughly 500 people have died in clashes between security forces and protesters since Oct. 1, according to Iraq's independent High Commission for Human Rights. Iraqis, mostly from the Shiite majority population, are protesting against corruption, poor services, and Iran's sweeping influence in the country.
