New Delhi: US President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States had killed Qasem Soleimani, one of Iran’s top military figures, in a bid to “stop a war.” The president said Soleimani's "reign of terror is over" following the strike at Iraq's Baghdad airport on Friday. "We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war," he told reporters.

Earlier yesterday, Trump kicked off his defense on Twitter. "General Qassem Soleimani has killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans over an extended period of time, and was plotting to kill many more...but got caught!" Trump wrote. "He was directly and indirectly responsible for the death of millions of people, including the recent large number of PROTESTERS killed in Iran itself."

However, Iran promised to seek revenge for the US airstrike near Baghdad's airport that killed the mastermind of its interventions across the Middle East, and the US said Friday that it was sending thousands more troops to the region as tensions soared in the wake of the targeted killing.

The death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran's elite Quds Force, marks a major escalation in the standoff between Washington and Tehran, which has careened from one crisis to another since US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions.

Almost 24 hours after the attack on Soleimani, Iraqi officials and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq reported another deadly airstrike.

Watch | Action to stop war, not start war: Trump on US killing Iran commander



The targeted strike against Soleimani and any retaliation by Iran could ignite a conflict that engulfs the whole region, endangering US troops in Iraq, Syria and beyond. Over the last two decades, Soleimani had assembled a network of heavily armed allies stretching all the way to southern Lebanon, on Israel's doorstep.

Thousands of worshipers in Tehran took to the streets after Friday prayers to condemn the killing, waving posters of Soleimani and chanting “Death to deceitful America."

The killing promised to further strain relations with Iraq's government, which is allied with both Washington and Tehran and has been deeply worried about becoming a battleground in their rivalry. Iraqi politicians close to Iran called for the country to order US forces out.

The US Defense Department said it killed the 62-year-old Soleimani because he “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region." It also accused Soleimani of approving orchestrated violent protests at the US Embassy in Baghdad.

(with inputs from agencies)