More than 70 protests across the United States are being held to condemn US President Donald Trump’s decision to assassinate Iranian Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and sending thousands of additional troops to the Middle East. RNA - The demonstrations on Saturday were organized by Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), a US-based anti-war coalition, in cooperation with several other anti-war organizations.
Protesters were also planned outside the White House, in Times Square, at Trump Tower in Chicago and at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, among other locations.
"The targeted assassination and murder of a central leader of Iran is designed to initiate a new war," ANSWER said on its website. "Unless the people of the United States rise up and stop it, this war will engulf the whole region and could quickly turn into a global conflict of unpredictable scope and potentially the gravest consequences."
Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were killed in US airstrikes in the Iraqi capital Baghdad early on Friday. The US strike took place at the Baghdad International Airport, killing eight other people.
The Pentagon said US President Donald Trump had ordered Soleimani's assassination.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei promised "severe revenge" for the death of the military commander. Ayatollah Khamenei said the “cruelest people on earth” assassinated the “honorable” commander who “courageously fought for years against the evils and bandits of the world.”
Trump has claimed he authorized the assassination of the commander of the Quds Force in Iraq “to stop a war,” but his Democratic presidential contenders have said that his action has put the United States on a warpath.
Democratic presidential candidates on Friday condemned Trump from ordering the deadly strike saying his decision was reckless and could lead the United States to another war in the Middle East.
"President Trump just tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox," former US Vice President Joe Biden said in a statement.
At a campaign event in Dubuque, Iowa, he added that "the prospect of direct conflict with Iran is greater than it has ever been."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also issued a stark warning about Trump's decision.
He said the move "brings us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East that could cost countless lives and trillions more dollars."
"Trump promised to end endless wars, but this action puts us on the path to another one," Sanders said during an address to supporters in Anamosa, Iowa.
“Trump makes decisions impulsively and without any congressional consultation. Congress needs to reassert its authority over matters of war. Our Founding Fathers had it right,” he said.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren warned, "We're on the brink of yet another war in the Middle East.”
"We're not here by accident. We're here because a reckless president, his allies and his administration have spent years pushing us here,” she added.
The Pentagon on Friday announced that the United States was sending at least 3,000 additional troops to the Middle East after the US assassination of General Soleimani.
In Washington, a Pentagon official said that 3,000 to 3,500 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division's Global Response Force will be deployed in the Middle East region.
"The brigade will deploy to Kuwait as an appropriate and precautionary action in response to increased threat levels against US personnel and facilities," the Pentagon official said.