US President Donald Trump ordered the planning of an attack on Iranian General Qassem Soleimani after the Dec. 27 attack on a US military base in Iraq that killed several Americans. This was reported by Bloomberg sources.

According to them, Trump planned the assassination of Soleimani with a narrow circle of his senior national security advisers, who at that time were on Christmas holidays in different regions of the United States. They communicated over secure communication lines.

Trump did not warn Congress of his plans for reasons of secrecy, one Bloomberg source said. Also, the leadership of the Ministry of National Security (responsible for countering the Iranian threat within the United States) and the heads of foreign states did not know about them.

General Qassem Soleimani was the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' al-Quds Special Forces and was in charge of Iranian military operations abroad. Soleimani was killed on January 3 near Baghdad airport in a US missile strike.
Donald Trump said that an Iranian general was involved in organizing the attacks and was responsible for the killings of hundreds of American citizens. The Iranian authorities called the assassination of their commander a "declaration of war" and promised to take revenge on the United States.
Following the assassination of Soleimani, the State Department urged Americans to leave Iraq immediately "due to the tense situation in the region." The US Department of Defense announced plans to deploy at least 3,000 troops to the Middle East, but noted that this was not related to the attack on Soleimani.

Bloomberg: Trump planned the assassination of General Soleimani with a narrow circle of advisers