you know traveling to iraq or who are in iraq they should prepare a will they should draft a will and they should designate beneficiaries in their life insurance policy i think that's all good advice we are now in an incredibly dangerous situation we the united states has assassinated one of the leading military and political leaders not just in iran but in the entire region it's an incredibly dangerous force that we're on it's a very stark assessment from you to say that this is a dick the russian of war on iran including we are talking about a significant figure in the iranian military and political establishment is this a war indeed as you've described it that both the united states or iran a fully prepared for. i mean you know but i think for americans or others around the world to think about it it's him or into to consider what the united states has done by assassinating or since on the money would be tantamount to the iranians assassinating perhaps our secretary of defense or our commander of the central

command it's an incredibly significant act the united states has taken if the president has taken this without debate in congress without any congressional authority it's probably an illegal act within the u.s. within the u.s. domestic context it is it is a very significant step so it's something i think we all do need to think very seriously about whether or not the 2 countries want it is it is an interesting and important question i think of course nobody wants war nobody wants to see death and destruction but on the other hand i had been hearing recently from iranian from iranian colleagues that even though it would be extremely painful for you brought in they understood the depth of sacrifice that they would have to make in such a war if they were coming to think that there was no other way to deal with the united states the president had taken the united states out of the iran nuclear geo had really. all kind of negotiation with iran as any kind of normal country or any

kind of country that you would have been any kind of respect for and the only way that iran to deal with the united states and that iran and in fact could survive would to have a war with the united states where the united states would have to leave the middle east in a humiliating blaze of defeat and i'm afraid that's the course that potentially president trump has what us on president trump promised the american people he would get us out of the middle east i don't think that he really intended to have us expelled from the middle east but that's the challenge now that the iranians i think are going to take they're going to try to get the united states out of the middle east one way or the other i think terms of their choosing we may not see it in the media. reaction from them but i think americans across the middle east whether they're in iraq whether in the united in the united arab emirates whether in set there in saudi arabia i think americans throughout the middle east today need to be extremely careful what they're doing and just on the question of the

u.s. and its ability to stay in the middle east we've seen of course the u.s. bogged down in conflict throughout the region conflict in iraq it's donald trump said he wanted to get out of syria and withdrew troops from syria has of course close ties with saudi arabia with. if you look more broadly geopolitically at the region we have a proxy war between iran and saudi arabia playing out inside yemen we have the long known antagonism between israel and iran there are so many fact is he a play and sing truth to all of this is the united states so if we're going to get an assessment from you about the us is a big ability to study the course and to deal with these current threats and to be able to remain as a significant player within the middle east. i mean literally

today u.s. diplomats and soldiers and other officials are they continue to be in a sense locked down in the u.s. embassy in baghdad how were they to get out of the u.s. embassy by helicopter off the roof of the embassy like we had to do in saigon vietnam decades ago it's really a stark stark metaphor for the u.s. position in the middle east and i think many of our allies in the middle east including the saudis including the emmer audi's have started to question whether this relationship this partnership with the united states is really worth the risk the costs that it it has for those countries we've seen in recent months united arab emirates change many of their policies because of iran they've started to talk to iran to deescalate the tensions with iran we've even heard recently that the saudis were considering to do that after the attack on their oil their oil facilities on september 14th so many of our friends and allies are also

reconsidering the cost of working with the united states so it's not just the number of troops which president ironically has tremendously increased on his watch even though he promised to take them out but he is in peril of u.s. troops he's in peril of u.s. allies what he has done is put us on a course not just for war but to damage u.s. relationships with all of our allies in the middle east it's a very dangerous situation who are men live rejoining us there from the dot as such thank you for giving us your time today on al-jazeera let's go back to get real is on door in washington d.c. and of course been following all the latest developments from there what's the latest. yeah we're trying to bring you as much information from verified official channels out of washington as we can as soon as we get them this is the 1st statement if you will directly from the white house it's short i'll just read it at the direction of the president the u.s.

military has taken decisive defensive action to protect u.s. personnel abroad by killing custom soleimani the head of the iranian revolutionary guard corps kids force a desert u.s. designated foreign terrorist organization so it's a pretty brief comment there but that's the 1st 1st official statement from the white house we have still not heard from the commander in chief president donald trump the only activity we've heard from the president is one tweet since this news broke and it was just a tweet of the photo of the american flag but that's it we've reached out to the white house to see if the president plans to address the american people and address the nation as barack obama did when osama bin laden was killed still no word from the white house on that again bear worth repeating again still also have not heard from the secretary of state or. the defense department of defense

head of the department of defense and it's worth pointing out again just that the statement from the pentagon really laid out that the pentagon felt that solo money was planning new attacks against americans in the region it says here finishes again this is from the pentagon statement the strike was aimed at deterring future iranian attack plans so it's very clear that from washington's perspective in the pentagon's perspective that this was urgent to protect american lives and so you get a sense of that's why they took this action deborah was on the they're doing a great job of course team across all of those developments from the united states as in any breaking news event these things. spasmodically we bring them to you as we get them in that light as comments coming directly from the white house again confirming with the pentagon a confirmed earlier the president donald trump indeed ordered this is this strike

inside iraq which is killed customs of the money a significant figure inside iran now some other 14 is going to join us live again from baghdad as well the last time we spoke you were telling us about those protests 2 or celebrations even that we've been seeing from demonstrators in iraq who have not been happy with iran and not been happy with council so the money tell us more about that and what you've been hearing. well we're seeing some celebration take place in tahrir square which is the main site of the 3 months of anti-government protests and of course one of the defining features of these protests has been opposition to iran so the news of the deaths of qassam so in money and also hundreds are of course met with a lot of support there because these 2 figures are basically. iran's influence in iraq which many people especially those in tahrir square regard as extremely

detrimental now the question is you know how will the broader public public react as before here wake up to this consequential news of course those who oppose the main influence in iraq will be relieved but then eventually there will also be a mounting concern about the response as you see you know president. u.s. officials doing their victory laps in the united states the reaction here in iraq will be one of grave concern because there is certainly a lot of fear that there will be retaliation and that this could result in a war on iraq the soil between the u.s. and iran with iraq is basically caught in the middle of it let's be clear here because the the view of the situation in iraq now for some months has been very confusing we've had protesters on the streets demanding that iran stop meddling in iraq you've been demanding

a complete overhaul of iraqi politics opposed to the president opposed to the prime minister we've had one prime minister submit his resignation and the president refused the nomination of another prime minister a potential prime minister and then threatened to resign himself so place what we've seen today in the broader context of the political turmoil and vacuum inside iraq which does not have right now a fully functioning government. well basically what these 3 months of anti-government protests have been asking for is a complete overhaul of the political system a political system that many people here in iraq feel has failed them since the us led invasion in 2003 day feel that this system into one that is beholden to corrupt political parties one that is beholden to foreign powers specially iran but also the us let's remember that there is also quite

a lot of opposition here in iraq to u.s. presence and its role here in iraq so what people have been asking for is a complete dismantling of the political order as we know it they wanted to replace the current parliamentary system of a presidential system they asked for a new electoral law they asked for fresh elections but the response of the government so far has not really been one that has taken into account these demands basically what the government has been trying to do is basically offer token concessions to try to cling on to power and one reason for that as it is seen by iraq is because of iran's influence what they feel is that the grip of iran on the iraqi government is so strong that it's basically preventing any kind of meaning meaningful response to the protests and many saw customs with the money as responsible for that he was somebody who frequented the iraqi capital very often especially since protests began on october 1st who is seen as somebody who was

leading the government's actually response to the protests basically telling the prime minister as also the president how to deal with describes his so the question everybody's mind now is who will fill this power vacuum with passengers with a money gone who will step in and does it mean that the iraqi government will actually be able to regain some of its sovereignty over its own country and will be able to respond to this or will somebody else fill this vacuum and the question now is what will the u.s. do in the wake of that strike will they step up their. so now we've been talking about custom so the money of course there was another figure killed in these strikes as well and that was mondy who is $1.00 of the significant leaders of the group that we've been talking about a lot in recent days and that is the popular mobilization forces a couple of things tell us more about him and also what response we might see from the pm if he were significantly among those who marched on the american embassy in

recent days. well i will medea $100.00 is the 2nd in charge of the popular mobilization force and he's also somebody that leads the hezbollah brigades in iraq which is the group that was targeted in the u.s. airstrikes on sunday and he was actually present when these crowds marched on the u.s. and most of these crowds which were composed basically of members and supporters of the popular mobilization forces and i actually saw him with my own eyes marching across the hanging bridge towards the u.s. embassy and he was basically somebody who not only masterminded operations of part of the mobilization of forces here in iraq and who wield a lot of influence not just on the military and political side but also who basically threw his weight behind the latest attack and siege on the u.s. embassy not a popular mobilization of forces if we take a step back this is an amalgamation of

a few dozen different armed groups which many of which have existed here in iraq since the 2003 invasion many of them were part of the resistance against the u.s. presence here and then they were slow to say submerged under the popular mobilization porters which as a whole was mobilized in 2014 to fight against eisel here in iraq now since i sort of official territorial defeat this group has not been demoralized that they have basically been officially integrated into iraq security apparatus and they are basically unknown to yield to wield a lot of power over not just the military forces but also they have political parties which currently control the largest bloc in parliament so this popular mobilization of forces are essentially seen as wielding a vast amount of influence and they organized are basically this march just funeral

procession that began on tuesday where they 1st of all they wanted to. commemorate the deaths of the 27 fighters of the hezbollah brigades who were killed in the airstrike and it all turned into basically this huge procession that marched into the fortified green zone without any opposition by the iraqi government whatsoever and on to the u.s. embassy and it's very important to emphasize that this crowd is very different from the crowd that has been protesting entire square basically on the opposite spectrums you have the popular mobilization forms has and their supporters which are closely allied to iran they will react very strongly to this u.s. strike that killed them so the money and. on the other hand we have the people entire square who are celebrating their deaths so it remains to be seen today what will happen how will the popular mobilization forces react will they stage another march perhaps another attack on the u.s.

embassy will they respond with rocket attacks which is something that we've seen quite a lot over the past few months with many of these rockets hitting military bases where u.s. personnel are based but many people here expect and fear that there will be a forceful response by the popular mobilization forces in response to this incident some other 14 lives there from baguettes mother thank you of course for those of you just joining us we're continuing our breaking news coverage here on al-jazeera of the strike several ordered by u.s. president donald trump inside iraq that have a significant inside the iranian regime tasm so the body of the leader of the forces a major general inside the revolution regard and of course a significant leader of one of the iran backed militias inside iraq as well as on there has been bringing us the breaking news out of washington d.c. any reaction that we've been getting from there we go back to him now with the

latest barbara. you know we're just now getting some confirmation on u.s. troop movements to the region the u.s. army's 82nd airborne based out of fort bragg north carolina is confirming that some paratroopers from the 82nd airborne arrived at. air base in kuwait earlier today today we're not sure if that means thursday east coast west east coast of the u.s. time or or what but this is just coming in to us paratroopers arrived at the air base in kuwait earlier today they go on to say their deployment in support of u.s. central command is a precautionary action taken to respond to increased threat levels against u.s. personnel and facilities want to put this into context real quickly here the 82nd airborne is a very elite fighting force of the u.s. army and it is meant to respond almost immediately to any threats around the world

as soon as the protest encircled the u.s. embassy in baghdad a few days ago. shortly thereafter. the pentagon announced that $750.00 soldiers from the 82nd airborne would be deployed to the region so it's unclear if these that are arriving now in kuwait are part of those $750.00 or if this is a new deployment from the 82nd airborne reached out to them we haven't got a response yet but clearly there are movements happening at this very hour within divisions of the u.s. military this base in kuwait is also where they sent a contingent of about 100 marines exactly as the protest started to overtake the outer walls of the u.s.

embassy there earlier this week so just to recap there were 100 us more. sent to the embassy to secure it as the protest was happening within a day 750 paratroopers were sent to the region exactly where we're not sure and now we're hearing confirmation that paratroopers from the 82nd airborne have arrived in kuwait we'll bring you more as soon as we as to get it while you were speaking we were bringing you some footage there which was all of exactly the forces that you were talking about who were full bragg in north carolina those troops from the id 2nd airborne before they had set out and left for 2 white wall of got you they will go to one of our guests in just a moment but can you bring us up to date as well i'm what we have good officially from the united states today both from the pentagon and also from the white house. yeah i'll start with the white house because that's the newest information that we

got just within the last 20 minutes or so of the white house has not commented no spokespeople have gone on camera president donald trump it should be noted has not spoken yet either of course we'll bring that to you soon as he does if he does but the white house has issued a statement or read it again because it's important at the direction of the president knighted states the u.s. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect u.s. personnel abroad by killing customs so the money the head of the iranian revolutionary guard cuts force a u.s. designated foreign terrorist organization that's important because the u.s. government declared soleimani and the kurds force and the republican guard official terrorist organization this year which from a legal standpoint at least from the american perspective allows u.s. forces to do exactly what apparently was done and that is a targeted killing or another way to look at it a targeted assassination so the status of the codes force being

a terrorist organization is a legal a significant legal parameter that was put on the cards force and so the money earlier this year by the u.s. government also the pentagon issued a longer statement but in the pentagon also confirming that it was the president that directed this strike that killed so money in their statement it was interesting and it's a little bit longer and i won't read the whole thing because i already have but all i'll just read part of it again it's a general sort of money was actively developing plans to attack american diplomats and service members in iraq and throughout the region general solo money and its codes force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of americans and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more that's part of the statement from the pentagon it went on to say by concluding the strike was aimed at deterring future i rain. attack plans so clearly the u.s.

government the pentagon in the white house had information that they thought that he had active plans or that he was leading forces that had active plans to target a miller americans and that's why this strike was called again we have not heard from the secretary of state and also most notably we have not heard from the man who authorized this strike that would be the commander in chief of the u.s. armed forces president donald trump by all accounts he is still at his mar-a lago resort 'd he has only tweeted a photo of the american flag and that was about an hour ago or so but beyond that absolute silence we do expect or we think that in a situation like this given the high profile nature of soleimani and the others that were killed for that matter that we probably would hear from the president i don't know i'm guessing there but i think that's why you're having a lot of not a lot of comments from official washington because i think they're waiting to see

if the president decides to make an on camera announcement about this and the fact that he does hasn't tweeted about it yet indicates that perhaps white house aides are getting together some sort of speech or announcement that could come out this evening washington time from the president of course as soon as we hear any more on that will bring that to you your good work deborah you start across developments then of course we'll come back to you as you get more information to hand if anyone was in any doubt about the significance of custom so the money will of course he was one of the most personal confidence of the supreme leader of iran of the let's learn more about him and the official response from iran from al-jazeera stores to bari who joins us now live from tehran are we hearing anything at all officially out of iran at this point also. yes we have heard from the former head of the revolutionary guard wilson reza he has

tweeted that the money is death will eventually and also we've heard from the supreme national security council in the country that they we need to later on today to the scots what to do next in their reaction to the response that they will have to the assassination of a possum salomone now this body is a very important body it is headed by the president hassan rouhani and the other heads of the judiciary branch as well as the speaker of parliament i will or johnny we have also we in the hearing from various other people across the city reaction as iranians wake up to the news essential and when he was not just a commander in the revolutionary guards quotes for c. was a very well known figure he was much admired and revered in the islamic republic for all the work that he's done across this region and also he's been attributed to bringing security to iran many here who believe that had it not been for him and

his forces eisel would have set foot inside iran in the past few years. one of our guests this morning live or it is a former white house national security official and she said very plainly in blood to me that this is a declaration of war from the united states against iran we know there have been tensions particularly under the truck. donald trump tore up the the iran nuclear deal from where you see it and what you see here particularly listening to what you said about iran morning that this would be if the way does this leave things between iran and the united states. this can be seen as possibly the worse points the lowest point the most hostile act the united states could have done to iran over the past 40 years or so since the

formation of the islamic republic that is because this assassination is going to be seen as a very personal attack not only on the iranian population but on the supreme leader himself a lot of the harmony is a was very close to us and. they were confidants friends and they knew each other prior to even the revolution some saw them on and fought in the iran iraq war between 1988 and that is when he came to rise up within the ranks of the revolutionary guards from his own city in care mon province this is where he was appointed to leave in the early ninety's to the head of the world's force now the supreme leader also awarded him with the highest military ranking in iran and just last year for all his efforts and even the announcement that was made on state t.v. just a short while ago officially acknowledging his death said

a statement that was issued by the rebel sure guard they said that his death has been his martyrdom has been congratulated to his family and his death his condolences has been passed on to the nation and it is a great loss and sadness that they pass on these news of his death that took place in iraq shortly after midnight near the airport by the u.s. forces this is something that will certainly have far reaching ramifications not only when it comes to iran's foreign policy in the middle east but also iran's response to the united states and its forces in this region. so thank you so much for that joining us live there from iran of course ghost of the significance of course. man who was general inside the revolutionary guard corps the leader of the croods force someone who was a personal confidant to the supreme leader of iran who is being killed in u.s.

ordered strikes inside iraq today it's just coming up to 4 g. and t. hours i'm stan grant and we're bringing the rolling coverage here on al-jazeera of a major breaking news story the lightest of course the united states has killed iran's most senior military commander. he was assassinated in an airstrike in the iraqi capital baghdad he was the leader of the elite force that's a division of the revolutionary guards corps which has far reaching influence in iraq syria lebanon and beyond that is rigid the pentagon's statement the pentagon has released this statement confirming that the strike was carried out on the orders of the u.s. president on it says the statement reads at the direction of the president the u.s. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect u.s. personal abroad by killing solomonic the head of the iranian revolutionary guards.