The Pentagon claimed responsibility for the rocket attack near Baghdad Airport that killed Iran's Quds force leader Major General Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. 

"At the direction of the President, the US military has taken decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization," read the statement from Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who claimed that Soleimani was developing plans to attack American diplomats. 

"General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week," Esper added, "This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans.  The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world."

Major General Qassem Soleimani rarely spoke in public, but was widely regarded as a hero within Iran for leadership of the country's elite military unit, and his planning of the country's military response to the US and allied coalition war in Iraq.  Although Soleimani organized Iranian diplomats to work with the US in targeting al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, under his influence Iranian-backed militias are believed to have killed some 600 US troops in Iraq, accounting for 17 percent of US fatalities.  He worked with the US again against the so-called Islamic State (IS), but cooperation didn't go past that.

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis also fought IS, but was designated a terrorist by the US for terror attacks going back to 1983.  He was the commander of the Iran-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah, which last month launched a rocket attack on a US base in Iraq, killing a military contractor.  The US responded with missile strikes on Hezbollah targets in Iraq and Syria, which was followed by the mob violence at the US Embassy in Baghdad, the world's largest and most heavily fortified.  The facility sustained a lot of damage in the melees.  It is not clear how the Iran-backed protesters even got into the protected Green Zone to attack the embassy, although many have speculated that the Iraqis let them through out of anger at the US-attacks on Iraqi soil.

The strike is bound to worsen already bad relations between Washington and Tehran, and has deepened a rift in Iraqi society.  Those who oppose Iranian influence in Iraq are already celebrating in the streets.  You can bet his supporters will be out soon enough.

Within Washington, Republican lawmakers have expressed fawning congratulations to Trump on killing a hated enemy.  But Democrats are questioning why this was done without consulting Congress, while pundits are wondering when the other shoe is going to drop against the US or its allies.

Al Jazeera reported unnamed Iranian officials saying that Soleimani's death "would be avenged".