The death of Qasem Soleimani is now dominating the global news agenda.
His death has seen the Islamic Republic of Iran threaten the United States of America whose military killed Soleimani.
Taking this threat seriously, the US through its State Department has urged its citizens to leave Iraq immediately.
Who is this man who has escalated the diplomatic tensions between the US and the Islamic Republic of Iran?
Here's what we know of the man:
Qasem Soleimani served as the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force. According to USA Today, he rose to that powerful position in the 1990s.
The Quds Force is an elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Soleimani was the leader of the Iranian-backed force when the Iraq war was unfolding.
Given his stature and his political connections, there was talk that he would someday become the president of Iran.
As a military commander, he was said to be more important than the president.
“He was more important than the president, spoke to all factions in Iran, had a direct line to the supreme leader and was in charge of Iran’s regional policy,” said Dina Esfandiary, a fellow at the Century Foundation think tank, as quoted by the Guardian.
According to his autobiography, Soleimani was born in a city called Rabor which is located in eastern Iran.
When Iran was engulfed by protests in 2009 against the government, Soleimani played a major role in crushing the protests.
Aljazeera reports that he had survived several assassination attempts by intelligence agencies in Israel, the Arab world, and the West.