On the morning of 6 January, Tehran woke up to hundreds of thousands of Iranians gathered on the streets to mourn the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani by the United States.
As the nation wept, Iran’s leaders swore ‘severe’ revenge for the man who led the country’s elite IRGC’s Quds Force and was often considered more powerful than even the President when it came to regional power broking.
And Iran’s retaliation began before long.
On 7 January, four days after General Soleimani’s assassination, Iran declared ALL US forces “terrorists”.
Fifteen hours after this declaration, Iran hit back, launching missile attacks on two US airbases in Iraq – the Ain al-Asad base in Anbar province, and an airbase in Erbil.
Irani state television claimed that at least 80 “American terrorists” had been killed, although America denied that they suffered any casualties.
Will Iran and US go to war over General Soleimani’s assassination? Not likely. We explain why such a move seems unlikely at this stage, and why a war between the two countries could be catastrophic for everyone, including India!
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