Iran and its allies continued to threatenrevenge yesterday as a rocket exploded near the US embassy in Baghdad following the killing of an Iranian leader by American forces.

Irans ambassador to the United Nations has warned the US has started a military war by an act of terror with the killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, as Donald Trump claimed he ordered the Quds Force generals death to prevent war rather than provoke it.

The countrys UN diplomat declared Iran has to act, and we will act, while UN secretary general Antonio Guterres joined global calls for de-escalation as he cautioned the world cannot afford another Gulf War.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

Meanwhile, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo criticised allies, including the UK, for not backing the airstrike. But former UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt criticised the action, calling it extreme.

Natohas suspended ongoing efforts to fight Isis in Iraqamid demands by Iran and its allies for revenge against the US.

Thousands of supporters of Soleimani and Iraqi Shia militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes gathered in Tehran, Baghdad and other cities to mourn the two men, who were killed in a US airstrike outside the Iraqi capital on Friday and whose funerals took place in Baghdad yesterday.

Yesterday Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared three days of mourning, a move followed by the Iraqi prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who declared three days of national mourning in Iraq.

A witness in Tehran described shops putting up portraits ofSoleimaniand funereal banners being hung in the citys neighbourhoods.

Hes seen as a guy who has fought terrorists and brought security for Iranians at home, saidAbas Aslani, a researcher at the Centre for Middle East Strategic Studies in Tehran, in a phone call from the Iranian capital.

Several Iranian officials reiterated longstanding warningson Saturday that Tehran could target US ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a significant chunk of the worlds energy reserves travel, with one noting that Irans missiles could reach Israel.

Only the best news in your inbox

This photo released by the Iraqi Prime Minister Press Office shows a burning vehicle at the Baghdad International Airport following an airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, early Friday 3 January

AP

The wreckage of the car in which general Soleimani was travelling when a targeted US airstrike struck outside Baghdad International Airport on 3 January

Ahmad Al Mukhtar via Reuters

Demonstrators burn the US and British flags during a protest in Tehran after general Soleimani was killed in a targeted airstrike by American forces

Reuters

A burning vehicle at the Baghdad International Airport following an airstrike. The Pentagon said Thursday that the US military has killed general Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, at the direction of Donald Trump

AP

Protesters burn Israeli and US flags as thousands of Iranians take to the streets to mourn the death of general Soleimani at the hands of America

EPA

Supporters of Donald Trump pray at an 'Evangelicals for Trump' campaign event held on the day following the killing of general Soleimani. At the event, the president praised the "flawless strike that eliminated the terrorist ringleader"

AFP via Getty

A huge procession of mourners gather in Baghdad for the funeral of general Soleimani on 4 January

AP

Thousands of Iranians take to the streets to mourn the death of Soleimani during an anti-US demonstration to condemn the killing of Soleimani, after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran

EPA

Iraqis perform a mourning prayer for slain major general Qasem Soleimani of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards at the Great Mosque of Kufa

AFP via Getty

A billboard reading 'Death to America and Israel', installed by Iran-backed shiite armed groups at a street in Jadriyah district in Baghdad, Iraq

EPA

A handout picture provided by the office of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei shows him visiting the family of Soleiman

KHAMENEI.IR/AFP via Getty

Thousands of Iranians take to the streets in Tehran

EPA

Pakistani Shiite Muslims burn a mock of a US flag as they hold pictures of General Qasem Soleimani during a protest against the USA, outside the US Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan

EPA

Iran's Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammed Jalal Feiruznia, looks to a portrait of Soleimani, as he receives condolences at the Iranian embassy, in Beirut, Lebanon

AP

People make their way on the street while a screen on the wall of a cinema shows a portrait Soleimani in Tehran

AP

Aziz Asmar, one of two Syrian painters who completed a mural following the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani poses next to his creation in the rebel-held Syrian town of Dana in the northwestern province of Idlib

AFP via Getty

A demonstration in Tehran

AFP via Getty

An anti-US demonstration to condemn the killing of Soleimani, after Friday prayers in Tehran

EPA

Mujtaba al-Husseini, the representative of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivers a speech in the holy shrine city of Najaf

AFP via Getty

Pakistani Shiite Muslims burn a mock of a US and Israeli flags as they hold pictures of General Qasem Soleimani during a protest against the USA, outside the US Consulate in Lahore, Pakistan

EPA

Protesters demonstrate in Tehran

AP

Pakistani Shi'ite Muslims hold pictures of General Qasem Soleimani during a protest against the USA, in Peshawar, Pakistan

EPA

Protesters, holding a photograph of the leader of the People's Mujahedin of Iran Massoud Rajavi, outside Downing Street in London

PA

Protesters burn a US flag in Tehran

AP

A Syrian man offers sweets to children to mark the killing

AFP via Getty

Iranian worshippers attend a mourning prayer for Soleimani in Iran's capital Tehran

AFP via Getty

Kashmiri Shiite Muslims shout anti American and anti Israel slogans during a protest

AP

Iranian worshipers chant slogans during Friday prayers

Reuters

A protest against the USA, in Islamabad, Pakistan

EPA

Iranians burn a US flag in Tehran

EPA

Supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Germany (NWRI) protest outside Iran's embassy in Berlin, Germany

Reuters

Supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Germany (NWRI) protest outside Iran's embassy in Berlin

Reuters

Iranian worshippers in Tehran

AFP via Getty

Vehicles of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol a road in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Kila near the border with Israel. Following morning's killing of Major General Qasem Soleimani, Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement called for the missile strike by Israel's closest ally, to be avenged

AFP via Getty

Iranian women take to the streets in Tehran

EPA

This photo released by the Iraqi Prime Minister Press Office shows a burning vehicle at the Baghdad International Airport following an airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, early Friday 3 January

AP

The wreckage of the car in which general Soleimani was travelling when a targeted US airstrike struck outside Baghdad International Airport on 3 January

Ahmad Al Mukhtar via Reuters

Demonstrators burn the US and British flags during a protest in Tehran after general Soleimani was killed in a targeted airstrike by American forces

Reuters

A burning vehicle at the Baghdad International Airport following an airstrike. The Pentagon said Thursday that the US military has killed general Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, at the direction of Donald Trump

AP

Protesters burn Israeli and US flags as thousands of Iranians take to the streets to mourn the death of general Soleimani at the hands of America

EPA

Supporters of Donald Trump pray at an 'Evangelicals for Trump' campaign event held on the day following the killing of general Soleimani. At the event, the president praised the "flawless strike that eliminated the terrorist ringleader"

AFP via Getty

A huge procession of mourners gather in Baghdad for the funeral of general Soleimani on 4 January

AP

Thousands of Iranians take to the streets to mourn the death of Soleimani during an anti-US demonstration to condemn the killing of Soleimani, after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran

EPA

Iraqis perform a mourning prayer for slain major general Qasem Soleimani of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards at the Great Mosque of Kufa

AFP via Getty

Go here to read the rest:

Nato suspends Isis operations in Iraq, as Iran vows revenge on Trump after killing of top commander - The Independent