The planned deployment of over 3,000 additional US troops to the Middle East is reported to be underway, with soldiers from the 82nd Airborne leaving their base in Fort Bragg in North Carolina headed for an undisclosed destination.
The Pentagon also placed an Army brigade in Italy on alert to fly into Lebanon if needed to protect the American Embassy there, part of a series of military moves to protect US interests in the Middle East.
Iran and various militant factions in the region have vowed vengeance and threatened to strike Americans and US interests in the region. In what is said to be a first, a red flag has been unfurled over the Holy Dome of Jamkaran Mosque in the Iranian city of Qom, which in Shiite tradition signals blood spilled unjustly and serves as a call to avenge a person who was slain.
In a fallout from the assassination, the Iranian government announced Sunday it would no longer abide by the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, lifting restrictions on centrifuges, uranium enrichment and more.
For its part, the Iraqi Parliament approved a non-binding resolution calling on the government to expel some 5,000 US troops from the country.
Though US officials, including the President and the Defense Secretary, have said they had compelling intelligence that General Soleimani was planning a significant campaign of violence against the United States, no evidence has so far been provided to back these allegations.
In response to ongoing tensions in the region, following the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike at Baghdad International Airport early on Friday morning