US, Iran exchange military threats after killing of Qassem Soleimani; Democrats question timing of attack

The United States and Iran exchanged escalating military threats on Friday as President Donald Trump warned that he was “prepared to take whatever action is necessary” if Iran threatened Americans and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed to exact vengeance for the killing on Trump’s order of Iran’s most valued general Washington: The United States and Iran exchanged escalating military threats on Friday as President Donald Trump warned that he was “prepared to take whatever action is necessary” if Iran threatened Americans and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed to exact vengeance for the killing on Trump’s order of Iran’s most valued general. Speaking to reporters in a hastily arranged appearance at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, Trump asserted that Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who directed Iranian paramilitary forces throughout the Middle East, “was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him.” Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; and Robert C O’Brien, the national security adviser, echoed Trump’s remarks. “We did not take action to start a war.” But he also warned Iran that the American military had “already fully identified” potential targets for further attacks “if Americans anywhere are threatened.” Hours earlier, Khamenei issued his own warning to Trump about Soleimani’s death from a missile fired by an American MQ-9 Reaper drone at the general’s convoy at Baghdad International Airport. “President Trump came into office saying he wanted to end America’s wars in the Middle East, but today we are closer to war with Iran than ever before and the Administration’s reckless policy over the last 3 years has brought us to the brink,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland wrote on Twitter.