The ambassador of the United States of America to Iraq has been summoned following an airstrike that killed a top Iranian commander near the Baghdad Airport, Reuters news agency has reported.
The summoning of the ambassador was confirmed by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry which described the airstrike that took out Qassem Soleimani as “a flagrant breach of Iraq’s sovereignty and of all international laws and norms that regulate relations between countries and prohibit the use of their lands to carry out attacks on neighbouring countries."
Also killed in the deadly strike was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy leader of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF).
Iraq is reported to have been angered by the US decision to proceed with the sensitive operation without notifying it.
The killings have been described as a dramatic escalation of conflict in the already troubled Middle East.
Iran has vowed to respond severely to the killing of a man said to have been the architect of its strategy in the Middle East.
It remains unclear how the Iranians are going to respond even as the US President Donald Trump warns against revenge.
The Trump administration said that the strike had been undertaken to prevent attacks against American citizens it says Qassem was actively planning.