Iran news – live: Trump claims Qassem Soleimani was ‘plotting to kill’ Americans, and urges US citizens to leave Iraq after killing of Iran’s top general

Who was powerful Iranian general Qassem Soleimani?

Rand Paul, the libertarian Republican senator, has quoted the US statesman Henry Clay in an apparent warning against a unilateral move towards war with Iran by Donald Trump.

Clay, who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries, argued forcefully at the time of the Mexican-American war that only Congress had the power to declare war and define its objectives.

Citizens should "know for what end their blood is to be farther shed, and their treasures farther expended, instead of the knowledge of it being locked up and concealed in the bosom of one man", he said in 1847.

Mr Paul tweeted that Mr Trump knows that toppling senior figures in the Middle East can lead to power vacuums, and asked whether Qassem Soleimeni's death will "endanger the lives of every American soldier or diplomat" in the region.

He added: "If we are to go to war w/ Iran the Constitution dictates that we declare war. A war without a Congressional declaration is a recipe for feckless intermittent eruptions of violence w/ no clear mission for our soldiers. Our young men and women in the armed services deserve better."

Royal Jordanian Airlines has suspended flights into Baghdad due to the security situation there, it said in a statement.

Mike Pompeo claims Soleimani strike was in response to 'imminent threat’, but provides no detail

Here's what Mike Pompeo has had to say about the reasons behind the deadly airstrike.

On CNN:

- "He was actively plotting in the region to take actions - a big action as he described it - that would have put dozens if not hundreds of American lives at risk. We know it was imminent."

- "These were threats that were located in the region. Last night was the time that we needed to strike to make sure that this imminent attack ... was disrupted."

On Fox News:

- "What was sitting before us was his travels throughout the region, his efforts to make a significant strike against Americans. There would have been many Muslims killed as well, Iraqis and people in other countries."

Donald Trump says that Iran general Qassem Soleimani was "caught" as he was "plotting to kill" many Americans, after years of anti-US military actions that have left thousands "killed or badly wounded", writes Clark Mindock.

The president ordered the air strike on Soleimani, the leader of the elite Quds Force, on Friday morning, raising concerns of unrest and destabilisation in the region as US-Iran have reached a decades-low state.

The world "cannot afford another war in the Gulf", UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has said, while calling for maximum restraint on all sides.

In a statement justifying the killing of Qassem Soleimani, Donald Trump claimed that the Iranian general was responsible for the deaths of “millions” of people, and for the killing and wounding of thousands of Americans, writes Richard Hall.

There is an element of truth there, but also some pretty bold exaggeration.

The Quds Force, which Soleimani led, is thought to have been responsible for the deaths of around 600 US soldiers during the Iraq War, mostly through the use of lethal roadside bombs it manufactured and flooded the country with. It also backed a number of Shia militias to fight against the US throughout the war.

It’s unclear who are the “millions” of dead Trump is referring to. But many credit Soleimani as being a major driving force behind the Syrian government’s violent crackdown on the uprising against Bashar al-Assad – a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands.

Trump also mentions the killing of protesters in Iraq. Iran-backed militias are thought to have been responsible for a violent crackdown on anti-government protests in Iraq. Hundreds are thought to have been killed by militia fighters since the protests began.

Donald Trump has unleashed a second torrent of tweets following the killing of Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, on his orders.

He claims Iran is dominating and controlling the Iraqi populace, having built its influence over the past 15 years. Quite what that has to do with money paid to Iraq - "on top of all else we have done for them" - by the US is not clear.

Dramatic images of the flaming wreckage left by US airstrikes that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani have been published by the Iraqi military, writes Andy Gregory.

The Pentagon said on Friday that Donald Trump ordered the surprise attack on two vehicles close to Baghdad International Airport, marking a serious provocation in already tense relations between US, Iran and their allies.

Soleimani, the hugely influential Revolutionary Guard Quds Force commander said to have played a role in almost every aspect of Iranian military expansion across the Middle East, was reported dead alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a leader of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) – an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia.