DARES WINGS
situation “could deteriorate quickly”. Britons in Afghanistan, Israel, Lebanon and the Occupied Palestinian Territories were told to “remain vigilant”. The emergency moves came after powerful Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, 62, died in an American Reaper drone strike at Baghdad airport on Friday.
Thousands of mourners chanted “Death to America” yesterday and US and UK flags were burned in the streets as Soleimani’s funeral procession took place in the city. Soleimani was head of Iran’s elite Quds Force and blamed for the deaths and maiming of thousands of British and American troops in military operations across the Middle East over the years.
BLOOD
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed “severe revenge” for his death. And its president Hassan Rouhani pledged that America “will suffer the consequences of such a criminal measure not only today, but also throughout the years to come”.
Donald Trump said his ordered assassination of Soleimani was “to stop a war, not to start one”.
He said the general was “responsible for the deaths of millions of people” as the President ordered 3,000 extra US troops to the Middle East.
One senior MoD source said: “Soleimani had been a marked man for quite a while.
“He had the blood of many British soldiers on his hands.” In 2007 Soleimani was alleged to have been involved in backing pro-Iranian militia groups in southern Iraq. These factions targeted British troops with bombs and rockets .
Senior British commanders are concerned UK nationals could be at risk from Iranian-backed Shia militia groups based inside Iraq. A US official denied
world”. In 2011 Mr Johnson refused to cut short a family holiday to Canada when he was Mayor of London to deal with riots. It was three days before he agreed to return and he faced angry heckles when he arrived in Clapham, broom in hand, to assist with the clean-up.
RUSSIA has been working closely with Iran in places such as Syria, but if this escalates the Russians will have to decide whether they want to be forced into an open conflict with America that is not of their choosing. They will wish to avoid this.
Iran will too, both for their own sake and to keep their Russian allies happy.
But accidents happen in these situations. Wars occur when they weren’t intended, and the fact is that Russian and American troops are very close to each other in the Gulf.
Both countries need to work hard to keep the lid on this.
China has been conducting maritime drills with Russia and Iran recently, but China is co-operating with Iran primarily for economic reasons.
I can’t see what advantage there would be to China taking sides over this. America is so much more important to them economically.
There’s more chance Russia will be drawn into something, but there is an argument that they will take the opportunity to tell Iran they have to some degree got their comeuppance after Soleimani went out of control.
It’s time to cool things down and find a route out of all this. Nobody wants a war, not least a war with America.
America was behind a second air strike reported by Iraq’s state TV to have killed six people in two medical vehicles north of Baghdad overnight on Friday.
But Iraq’s military and the US-led coalition denied this. Meanwhile the US has been blasted for not giving advance notice of the attack to Britain. Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the failure was “regrettable” as there should be “no surprises in the relationship”.
The MoD last night said it would not comment on Special Forces operations. alan.selby@ mirror.co.uk