Thousands chant 'death to America' at Iran prayers

Thousands at Tehran's Friday prayer shouted "death to America" and called for retaliation against the US for killing Iran's top general Qassem Soleimani, state TV reported. Hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami said the resistance movement seeks revenge and that Soleimani's comrades would not allow Trump to "sleep comfortably from now on."

The US killed Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Tehran's proxy wars in the Middle East in an airstrike at Baghdad's international airport early on Friday, an attack that threatens to dramatically ratchet up tensions in the region. The targeted killing of Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, could draw forceful Iranian retaliation against American interests in the region and spiral into a far larger conflict between the US and Iran, endangering US troops in Iraq, Syria and beyond. 

The Defence Department said it killed Soleimani because he "was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region." It also accused Soleimani of approving the attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad earlier this week