US embassy in Baghdad urges citizens to depart Iraq 'immediately'

CAIRO – 3 January 2020: The US embassy in Baghdad urged American citizens in Iraq on Friday to "depart immediately,” several hours after the US killing of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in Iraq.

"US citizens should depart via airline while possible, and failing that, to other countries via land," the embassy said in a statement.

Top Iran commander Qasem Soleimani killed in Baghdad


Russia further warned on Friday that killing Soleimani would increase tensions across the Middle East.

"The killing of Soleimani... was an adventurist step that will increase tensions throughout the region," news agencies RIA Novosti and TASS quoted the foreign ministry as saying.

Iran vows revenge against U.S. for Soleimani killing


Moscow is also one of the world powers that negotiated the landmark Iran nuclear deal that Washington withdrew from in 2018, leading to a surge in tensions.

Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian parliament's upper house, said on Facebook that “Retaliatory strikes will certainly follow.”

He pointed out that the killing marked the end of any chance to salvage the nuclear deal.

Moreover, leader of Lebanon's Tehran-backed Hezbollah group called Friday for the death in a US strike of top Iranian commander Major General Qasem Soleimani to be avenged.

"Meting out the appropriate punishment to these criminal assassins... will be the responsibility and task of all resistance fighters worldwide," Hassan Nasrallah said in a statement.