What’s next after U-S takes out Iranian general?

BAGHDAD (AP) – An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader is threatening U.S. troops in the Middle East and says “this is the time to clear the region from these insidious beasts.” The adviser made the comment while leading Friday prayers in Tehran, just hours after a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad killed Iran’s top general. The hard-liner said Americans and President Donald Trump will never enjoy peace of mind again. He said: “I am telling Americans, especially Trump, we will take a revenge that will change their daylight into a nighttime darkness.” Meanwhile, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Kamenei appointed the slain general’s deputy as his successor.

PARIS (AP) – Global powers are warning that the world has just become a more dangerous place after the targeted killing by the U.S. of Iran’s top general. China, Russia and France, all permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, took a dim view of the U.S. airstrike near Baghdad’s airport early Friday that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani.á A French deputy minister says “We are waking up in a more dangerous world.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry condemned the U.S. airstrike as á”an adventurist step” that will inflame that Mideast. China said it was “highly concerned.” Urgent reconciliation efforts are being launched behind the scenes.á

BAGHDAD (AP) – Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a veteran Iraqi militant who was closely allied with Iran, was killed overnight Friday in a U.S. strike that also felled Iran’s top general. Al-Muhandis was the deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of mostly Shiite paramilitaries. He was also the founder of the Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades. The U.S. blamed the group, which is separate from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, for a rocket attack in northern Iraq last week that killed a U.S. contractor. The militias mobilized in 2014 when the Islamic State group swept across northern and western Iraq.