U.S. disrupted 'imminent attack' killing Iranian general

Video Credit: Reuters Studio
Published on January 3, 2020 - Duration: 00:58s

U.S. disrupted 'imminent attack' killing Iranian general

A U.S. air strike in Baghdad that killed a top Iranian commander aimed to disrupt an "imminent attack" that would have endangered Americans in the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in television interviews on Friday.

Rough Cut (no reporter narration).


U.S. disrupted 'imminent attack' killing Iranian general

Pompeo, in interviews on Fox News and CNN, declined to discuss many details of the alleged threat but said it was "an intelligence based assessment" that drove the U.S. decision to target Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force.

"There was an imminent attack, the orchestrator of the attack was Qassem Soleimani," Pompeo told Fox and Friends.

"What was sitting before us was his travels throughout the region and his efforts to make a significant strike against Americans." Iran has threatened to retaliate after the overnight U.S. air strike against the second most powerful figure in Iran that marked a dramatic escalation in the Iran-U.S. conflict in the Middle East.

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