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Donald Trump has claimed Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani was planning to attack four US embassies when he was killed an American airstrike.
Amid continuing controversy over whether or not Soleimani represented an imminent threat to America, and after a shifting narrative from the Trump administration, the president said – without providing evidence – that among those being targetted was the US embassy in Baghdad.
“We will tell you that probably it was going to be the embassy in Baghdad,” Mr Trump told Fox News in an interview broadcast a week after Soleimani was killed in a drone strike at Baghdad’s airport.
When pressed on whether attacks were planned for other embassies, the president said: “I can reveal that I believe it probably would’ve been four embassies.”
Just hours earlier, secretary of state Mike Pompeo had said the US did not know when or where such attacks might occur.
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeralShow all 24 1 /24Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Kerman - Final stage of funeral processions Iranian mourners gather around a vehicle carrying the coffin of top general Qasem Soleimani during the final stage of funeral processions, in his hometown Kerman. Soleimani was killed outside Baghdad airport in a drone strike ordered by US President Donald Trump, ratcheting up tensions with Iran which has vowed "severe revenge"
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Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran Iranian people carry a coffin of Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani during a funeral procession in Tehran
Official Khamenei website via Reuters
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Kerman - Final stage of funeral processions The assassination of the 62-year-old heightened international concern about a new war in the volatile, oil-rich Middle East and rattled financial markets
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Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Kerman - Final stage of funeral processions
West Asia News Agency via Reuters
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran Mourners packed the streets of Tehran for ceremonies to pay homage to Soleimani, who spearheaded Iran's Middle East operations as commander of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force and was killed in a US drone strike on January 3
Iranian Supreme Leader's Office/EPA
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Kerman - Final stage of funeral processions
AFP via Getty Images
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran Iranians set a US and an Israeli flag on fire during the funeral procession
AFP via Getty Images
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, centre, with Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, second left, and President Hassan Rouhani, third left, standing next to him as he leads a prayer over the caskets of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at Tehran University
Khamenei.IR/AFP via Getty
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Kerman - Final stage of funeral processions
AP
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, openly weeps as he leads a prayer over the coffin of Qassem Soleimani
AP
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran Mourners holding posters of Qassem Soleimani
AP
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran Coffins of Soleimani and others who were killed in Iraq by a US drone strike, are carried on a truck surrounded by mourners during a funeral procession, at the Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) square
AP
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Kerman - Final stage of funeral processions An Iranian mourner holds a placard
AFP via Getty Images
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran Downtown Tehran was brought to a standstill as mourners flooded the Iranian capital
Khamenei.IR/AFP via Getty
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran Former Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps chief Mohamad Ali Jafari prays on the coffins of Qasem Soleimani and of other victims during their funeral ceremony
EPA
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Kerman - Final stage of funeral processions
AFP via Getty Images
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran
EPA
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran
EPA
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Kerman - Final stage of funeral processions
West Asia News Agency via Reuters
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran
Official Khamenei website via Reuters
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Kerman - Final stage of funeral processions
AFP via Getty Images
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Kerman - Final stage of funeral processions
West Asia News Agency via Reuters
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran
Satellite image Maxar Technologies/AP
Qassem Soleimani: Mourners fill Iran streets for funeral Tehran
EPA
At a press conference at the White House, Mr Pompeo was asked for specifics.
“I don’t know exactly which minute,” Mr Pompeo said.
US announces new sanctions against Iran “We don’t know exactly which day it would have been executed, but it was very clear. Qassem Soleimani himself was plotting a broad, large-scale attack against American interests and those attacks were imminent.”
The comments of the two men ended a week that saw Iran respond to the killing by firing rockets at two bases in northern Iraq used by US troops.
The attacks hurt no Americans but on the same night, a civilian airliner came down near Tehran’s airport, killing around 180 people.
A series of western countries have accused Iran of shooting the plane down by accident, something Iran has denied.
Additional reporting by agencies
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