the eyewitness reports of israeli jets flying quite low so clearly israel is very worried about any reaction on its border with syria and lebanon and that means any action potentially with the hezbollah you could have a john jay my colleague talk about in the straw the leader of hezbollah statement a very clear statement this will be of real concern to the israelis they'll be wondering what happens next this is the neighborhood where any potential reaction may well take place by hezbollah so clearly is a big concern for the israelis among calm there live from west to respond with that update. i'm jelly donuts and we are continuing our special coverage here on al-jazeera live from doha when iran's supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei has called for 3 days of national mourning after a u.s. strike killed a senior commander of iran's revolutionary guards major general some sort of money

how many warned of quote hosh revenge and said the incident double iran's resolve to resist the united states same has more in the early hours of friday shortly after arriving at baghdad international airport major general qassam solo money an iranian war hero who led the charge against isis in iraq and syria was killed in a u.s. airstrike. his close ally the deputy head of hush those xabi an iranian backed iraqi militia the omo hundreds was also killed along with other members of his group u.s. missiles hit their convoy as they left the airport. so the money was commander of the quds force a unit of iran's revolutionary guard responsible for foreign operations for iran's supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei so the money was a trusted confidant a member of his inner circle his killing in a targeted u.s. strike is the most extreme escalation in tensions between to her own in washington in recent years how many warned there will be retaliation. the cruelest people on

earth assassinated the honorable commander who courageously fought for years against the evils and bandis of the world sulaimani is martyrdom will make iran more decisive to resist america's expansionism and to defend our islam values with no doubt iran and other freedom seeking countries in the region will take his revenge into her own senior leaders met in an emergency meeting of iran's national security council many iranians see the u.s. attack as an act of war across the region there will be implications anywhere where there is an american military presence. american should should leave those countries immediately but if i was in the emirates i would leave now if i was an american in iraq i would leave now if i was an american any part in southwest asia i would leave immediately the united nations high commissioner for human rights

described the killings as a likely violation of international law the fact that the united states designated . on its own you know laterally as a foreign terrorist does not give the united states in law or in practice even the right to kill him it in u.s. law gives the united states there the right to seize his assets but not to kill him . in washington reaction was split along party lines republican support of the strike senior democrats called it reckless silliman he was a murderer but this reckless move escalates the situation with iran and increases the likelihood of more deaths and new middle east conflict our priority must be to avoid another costly war. u.s. secretary of state mike pump aoe tweeted a video showing iraqis celebrating the attack while still the money enjoyed widespread support for leading the charge to displace eisel from iraqi strongholds some iraqis blame iran for instability and interference in their country and salute

money directly for the deaths of more than 500 iraqis in violent anti-government protests which began in october feared by his enemies inside iran salon he has for years been one of the most popular national figures in the country the international face of iranian resistance to american pressure he remained largely untouched by the waning popularity in recent years of the country's elected government over economic issues oh you come up here no matter how much you will stop this war but we will be the ones to impose its and therefore you have to be careful about insulting the iranian people and the president of our republic many iranians looked on so the money a someone who could protect them cut down at the height of his popularity by a u.s. strike his death marks the lowest point in iran u.s. relations in decades zain bus ravi al jazeera. well we've correspondents covering

this story from all angles of elizondo is in washington d.c. dorsetshire is in tehran but 1st let's speak to someone and live in baghdad hi there is some old house so we know that case because our leader of one of the iran backed groups in iraq has told his fighters to be on high alert for coming battle what more can you tell us. well indeed there has been. the leader of a cyber hug which is one of the groups under the popular mobilization forces which is this umbrella group of mostly iranian backed groups and he in the wake of this attack he basically called on his followers to be ready and he said that there would be retaliation for both the deaths of personally money as well as the deaths of hundreds of course this is the 2nd in charge of the popular mobilization forces here and basically an iraqi security official and basically what he said was quote

we will ensure the total elimination of the u.s. presence in iraq unquote which suggests that there will be there might be some kind of efforts to launch attacks against bases where u.s. personnel are stationed or against the u.s. embassy here in baghdad and of course we have seen rocket attacks over the past month i've actually seen an increase in the frequency of such attacks and we've also seen just a few days ago a large crowd of supporters of the popular mobilization forces are actually marching on the the u.s. embassy year which is located in the fortified green zone and attacking and besieging that embassy for almost a day so it remains to be seen what this excess collation will be now of course the popular mobilization forces they consist of many many members tens of thousands if not at the height of the war against eyesore. and that some 150000 fighters of

course the huge number of people but in comparison to that of the u.s. forces here are only around 5000 but of course in terms of for example air support or technological means the popular mobilization forces are far behind the united states so we have to wait and see what this kind of military threats would actually and tail would we get more of the same with we get more rocket attacks will we get another effort to once again attack the u.s. embassy in egypt or will there be another escalation that is unprecedented so far and so on he also said that the 2. as they're called were huge symbols of the victory against the islamic state what's the significance of. well the popular mobilization forces were essentially created in 2014 to fight eisel in country now some of those groups including these groups they exist in the

world before they were actually part of the insurgency against american troops in the wake of the 2003 invasion so they are now all part of this big umbrella of armed groups and of course they were they were basically created to fight as well but following the territorial defeat of iceland 2017 they haven't ceased to exist they didn't demobilize again they actually were formally integrated into iraq's security apparatus and are considered state actors and that is why the prime minister out of the the source strongly confirmed this airstrike killing these 2 figures and especially i will mark the other one this was considered an iraqi official and the fact that he focused on their achievements in iraq during the war against eisel really suggests that he is basically trailing iran's position here there was no criticism whatsoever about any of the more negative impacts that they

may have played many iraqis strongly opposed to the presence of iran here and also they criticize the popular mobilization of forces for basically committing violence against civilians against protesters but that didn't seem to come through at all in the prime minister's statement fulton there joining us live from baghdad simona thank you. well people in tehran have been reacting with anger and sadness a mixture of general solomon names death. that's to give us a look. i heard it on the radio in the taxi this morning i was waiting for the names of those killed when i heard general salim ali's name i said oh god he was martyred unconsciously i started to cry and also realize some rationale shall be figures were killed as well i'm calling on our government to consider the much of a punishment on the us to take revenge on the. phone with us the farmer.

unfortunately it's clear that wherever the us enters it is after domination for its own interests general saloon money was one who stood up bravely especially fighting i saw we all know how much effort he put into fighting them and it is very painful for us and we hope we can take revenge i express my condolences to the people and his family doesn't want to actually do with us. he was a key figure 100 percent they were targeting him they knew where he was surely arar won't leave it on answered i will do something i was surprised when i heard it the smalling one of my colleagues informed me i was surprised that it was possible he said his father has been crying in front of the television since 4 am i'm amazed it's possible for this to happen to someone so important it's very strange. let's cross now to dorsetshire he joins us from tehran there watching those pictures door so friday prayers and listening to ayatollah might get him a senior cleric and senior member of the panel of experts also he talk about having

to cleanse the region from bees devils and just listing all sorts of people on the street i wonder if you can sum up for us the shock that's perhaps turned to anger the smalling into iran. well there's a great sense of betrayal here the iranians feel that not only has the united states carried on this maximum pressure campaign since they withdrew from the nuclear deal last year but now with the killing of us and so the money it's gone another step further dave managed to actually kill $1.00 of the most prominent one of the most important and influential well known figures inside iran control the money is not just the leader of the what's force he was one of the most revered commanders one of the most loved commanders in the islamic republic and his relationship with the supreme leader is very very important one their friendship goes back to the days of the revolution of 1979 and then during the war between

iran and iraq a simple imani fought for 8 years and there are many tales of this heroism during the war there is a specific story about how he was shot on the battlefield and he was transferred to a hospital who shot in the abdomen and allegedly as he was taken to the hospital as soon as they removed the bullets he left the hospital and went back to the battlefield these kinds of stories are have been around for many many years about us and so the money he is not just the regular commander he's been known to be the protector of the islamic republic a confidant of the supreme leader and his efforts in that keeping eisel out of iran has been very very important for ordinary iranians many have said in the past that had it not been for him and his forces and his knowledge and know how and his military capabilities i still may have kamar charite in to carry on at any point over the past few years so this attack now will highlight how the united states

wants to move forward between in its relationship with iran and the taxi driver who i came into work with and early this morning with for the news and even broken on state t.v. hear him and i will listen. into the state radio and they announce the death of buses for the money he was so overcome with emotion this is an elderly man who never had any relationship with the revolutionary guards in his life but he had to pull over the taxi and collect himself before he could finish the drive and bring me into the office it just gives you a sense of how important a figure he was in iran and his debts will certainly have far reaching ramifications and as we speak we are waiting to get information about any special emergency meeting that's going to take place of the national supreme national security council with the presidents and various high ranking officials under the guidance of the supreme leader this body is in charge with dealing with iran's

foreign policy so we're going to know very soon how wrong will respond but we've heard from various officials including the former head of the besiege forces that is the military that is a volunteer unit of the revolutionary guards he said that the united states should start sending coffins for all the u.s. soldiers that are present in the middle east very strong words coming from officials within the revolutionary guard we also heard from the former head of the revolutionary guard most senators a who said that his death will be avenged it will not go on answered these are all sentiments that have been shared by all the high ranking officials and we've also heard from ordinary iranians on the street they share those sentiments certainly dosage of are there live with the very latest from tehran door so thank you for more on that let's cross over to gave elizondo he sent in by for us in washington d.c. gave it i'd like to do 2 things for as if you can see some of the reaction tell us a little bit more about the u.s.

asking its personnel to leave baghdad. yeah this is the latest information that we had this was rumored for about an hour or so but it was just confirmed from the state department and it's a pretty sober warning quite frankly the state department or i'm should say the u.s. embassy in baghdad urging all u.s. citizens to leave iraq immediately and in the statement saying that they should try to leave the airport via airline but if that is not possible for every reason the u.s. embassy in baghdad is saying that american citizens should immediately try to cross out of iraq in any way possible crossing into neighboring countries if need be that was from the statement from the u.s. embassy that said that the embassy in baghdad will be closed for any regular business and saying that americans should not try to go to the embassy for any circumstances given the heightened tensions right now so that's the latest that we

have there that the situation clearly is not very good and no warning americans to get out immediately and gave we've heard lots of reaction this morning haven't we most of it is thought seems to fall along partisan lines. yeah a little bit we have heard from a handful of lawmakers and that's important because we have not heard directly from president donald trump we have not heard directly from pres from secretary of state mike pompei o or secretary of defense esper so we have heard from lawmakers and it's it's a little bit of divergent views here i mean we've heard from lindsey graham a republican senator from south carolina and a close confidant of president trump and this is in part what lindsey graham tweeted saying this action by president trump in our military was in direct response to iranian aggression orchestrated by general so the money and his proxies

if iran continues to attack america and our allies they should pay the heaviest of prices which includes the destruction of their oil refineries that sort of as a snapshot of a general sentiment that we've heard from several high ranking republican senators including marco rubio from the state of florida pretty much can graduating trump for taking this action and saying it was the right thing to do however we've heard from some democratic lawmakers as well current and former ones i want to go 1st to former vice president joe biden who's running for president in a top democratic. nominee or top democratic candidate running for the democratic nomination the former vice president biden said in a fairly long statement all history part of it he said president trump just tossed a stick of dynamite into

a tinder box and he owes the american people an explanation of the strategy and plan to keep safe our troops and embassy personnel our people and our interests both here at home and abroad iran will surely respond we could be on the brink of a major conflict across the middle east that comes. from joe biden and i should also message mention that the speaker of the house nancy pelosi also sent out a statement as well she was quite concerned quite frankly she said that the full congress must be a mediately briefed on the syria situation and on the next steps under consideration by the administration she said that congress was not to be briefed on this before president trump authorized this strike she's saying she now wants answers why so clearly there are some statements coming out of washington

a lot of lawmakers congratulating trump and sort of taking a victory lap if you will but a lot of others as well raising some concerns about what the next steps are and is this administration is the u.s. government prepared for the fallout of what could come next. there live at the very latest from washington d.c. thank you. you want challenges here are a mind of our top story this hour. the supreme leader of iran ayatollah sayyid ali come any says those who killed cut some sort of money should await tougher of age iranians are mourning the death of saddam on a friday prayers in tehran. after authorizing the strike president donald trump tweeted a picture of the american flag but he's made no further comments yet cast some sort of moneys death has exacerbated already tense relations between iran and the united

states what we're going to bring in our guest who is with me here in the studio marwan bashara who is our senior political analyst and he joins us here in the studio when i was very struck earlier listening to dorsetshire bari rickett those pictures of friday prayers earlier and she talks of what she described as a great sense of betrayal in tehran now if you are potentially looking at this from the u.s. perspective you thinking betrayal why what does that mean i just wonder if you can pick that for us well i mean certainly the united states and iran. go through a long process of negotiations over a nuclear agreement by which the united states was going to basically lift sanctions and allow iran to develop peacefully. of course free of nuclear programs and weapons and so forth the advent of the trumpet misfortune changed all of that and sort of these sanctions were imposed by

motorcyclists and 2nd that is sanctions attempt to cripple their only regime until it comes back humiliated to the negotiations table in order to renegotiate the deal and clearly it doesn't trump has been quite. aggressive in his approach to iran and at this point in time the only way i can see and i the the killing of the customs of the money is. a declaration of war because this was not done covertly this was not done in secret and certainly this was not done and nor responsibility. recognized trump has boasted basically of killing the iranian commander and that for me again it's very similar to some sort of are sort of a middle aged challenge to a duel so basically what we have now and and i ask all our viewers to forget about

everything else all the noise and all the other ayatollahs and all the advisors and and even the president like president rouhani and for the mrs or if all of that now is noise what we have is president trump challenging hourly hominy to a duel let's fight it out basically and does that have to end an all out escalation because both sides potentially have a lot to lose absolutely so the question is and here i have a number of our i would say out of the box ideas about what the front administration might be thinking just to follow their president trumps logic over the last 3 years so i'm going to ask a provocative question i'm reading is president trump planning to withdraw america from iraq like he did from syria like he is trying to do in afghanistan is president trump. in the mindset that look we don't

need all this headache in the various countries on the hotspots of the middle east we need to bring our troops home but our navy our marines on our air force will stay there and if any one moves in any which way against our embassies or against our interests we will attack them but we don't have to be held hostage a lot of our people our exports our teachers and so on so forth and the various hotspots of the middle east so this could be a sophisticated strategy from the u.s. administration with pre-planning as opposed to you know the initial statements that we had from the u.s. were that this was you know a provocative action a reflex something that looked like it might have been done on the hoof and also i remember just earlier this week i think it was new year's eve we heard trump say at an event milan i was standing next to him and he said you know we don't want to escalate that actually iran shouldn't want to escalation either and yet here we are so please i mean them i mean don't use big words like sophistication because. you

know the only thing to be expected from this administration has been not to expect much from this administration because you never know what happens next but clearly this kind of an action after saying we don't want war from there want to basically declare war against iran by attacking its one of its you know heroes on its commanders the closest man probably to ayatollah khomeini the sword over ayatollah khomeini over the last 2 decades i think to say i don't want to walk around i want trouble with iran is of course you know runs shallow in so many ways but once again the snow used to differ because history of the last 40 years teaches us that iran is not interested in fighting the united states on its own. field in its own landscape of power which is direct military confrontation because everyone knows a not uranian should have a 2nd thought that iran will be crushed if it's going to fight the united states

face to face military to military and that's why the iran for the last 40 years has avoided its called of could force that's supposed to liberate meaning jerusalem and yet there has been no confrontation between iran and israel for the last 40 years no direct confrontation between iran and israel why and we have this commander former commander in our late commander who was tasked by force so iran is not about to do what it has avoided doing for the last 40 years which is military confrontations with military powers that are superior to it militarily hence that takes us to other forms of confrontation could it be covert operation could be systematic long process of assassinations against america and its allies and social could it be proxy meaning using its assets in iraq syria lebanon and elsewhere or could it be some form of an escalation in the gulf region for example

that would allow once again so of course the hiking of the oil prices of the peace and security the international news is going to be put at risk there are a number of scenarios out there leave it there for just one thank you well ali annabelle worry is a political analyst and joins us now from baghdad to stand boy thank you very much for staying with us through our rolling coverage ali the iraq government it strikes me is in a very sensitive position both with the attack on the embassy and obviously these targeted killings happening on its soil. absolutely i mean the government which is already a crippled kid taking government to doesn't have much power and the country. is in a critical situation of course they have strong allies with iran and at the same time they're trying to keep strong relationship with their medications and such an

escalation happening over the last week or so is not the best interest of iraq or the iraqis or the government. to tell you the truth so. of course they would have to make a statement strong statements condemning. first on the. bases in iraq and syria and now on the 'd convoy of. their money and of course of all made in one dis but other than that i don't think they can take a real action towards what's happening. now is in the hands of the. popular mobilization forces they are the strongest. forces within the security forces in iraq and they are the. main players and the iraqi politics

and security as well so they have of course they have a strong ties with iran so this is the real issue here what iran and in cooperation with the. popular mobilisation forces are going to do i think the iranians are usually smart. apart from the harsh statements the strong statements coming from iran as well as from iraq they will think it over they will find the soft spots where they can the united states without going into. confrontation of wider size so it's it's really a very complex situation and mr boyd here on out is here we obviously covered widely the protests that so we're square there must be a real sense of frustration there that there was for a while a momentum of feeling like a different political future may happen and yet now we see the big music changing

and the attention firmly shifting so what happened today. unfortunately this is what's happening we have been trying to avoid that in one story says another to her ear and in other cities in iraq and all of the iraqi people to avoid any kind of confrontation happening on the iraqi soil between the iranians and americans because we believe that this would affect the ongoing process. of changing the regime which is have been pushed by and asked for and demanded by the demonstrators and but that and other cities in iraq. now it's a different scenario and of course this. will. take away the aspersion of the iraqi people for changing that e.g. because that it will have something to go on for to tell the people that we are

now in a crisis our country has been attacked do we need to take actions and we need to be united against this attack of course this will affect very much their on going to demonstrations hopefully not. joining me live from baghdad so i thank you. you're watching al-jazeera let's bring you firmly up to speed on our breaking story iran's top military commander cutscene sort of mani has been killed in a u.s. airstrike in iraq's capital baghdad the pentagon said president ordered that attack to quote protect u.s. personnel abroad amid escalating tensions between the 2 countries citizens have been urged to leave iraq while iran's the disick condemned the attack which they're calling an assassination and a warning of quote severe revenge against the u.s.

. of course ramifications are now being felt across the region iraq's caretaker prime minister called the attack a massive breach of so pretty and says it will spark a devastating war lebanon's hezbollah leader is vowing to punish those behind sort of killing china's foreign minister has called for calm and urged old sides to exercise restraint while israel has put its military on high alert the country's prime ministers cut short a trip to greece to deal with the fallout well for more on israel's reaction what prime minister benjamin netanyahu might do next i suppose that's the big question in iran as he's cut his trip short what might he do next. well he's going to return back to israel but already process has been put in place to react to all of these events there was a security cabinet meeting and they really came up with like 2 very key decisions the 1st one was to bolster its own all of israel's diplomatic missions abroad and

to bolster the defenses against the border with lebanon and with syria so we're seeing troop movement on tools of those borders now that's fairly standard when it comes tensions within the reason is a stock response from israel but what's really interesting is that we are hearing from eyewitnesses that are israeli military jets flying over southern lebanon that's the home of hezbollah and now it's really of concern to the israelis what hezbollah might do next if they escalate any kind of tensions along that border. be of concern also syria iranian troops within syria itself and iranian allied militias within syria itself so it's a real concern to the israelis what might happen next also what we're hearing is the prime minister benjamin netanyahu may make some kind of statement however he

has asked his cabinet not to comment on the situation so we're not going to hear any official comment coming from the israelis but there may well be a statement from the prime minister benjamin netanyahu also we are hearing was briefed on the strike either as it was taking place or just immediately afterwards so israel definitely in the loop with the u.s. when it comes to this situation but what israel does next is going to be reactive according to what happens within the region most analysts suggesting that really what's going. on i want to also for the israeli public and in the press there what their reaction has been i mean initially this morning we saw reaction to king from iran saying that you know israel was part of this attack alongside the u.s. . well israel has always been seen as the u.s. is junior partner when it comes to the region so clearly.