Qassem Soleimani – Westerners to get out of Dubai as tensions mount

Qassem Soleimani – Tourists should leave the United Arab Emirates immediately after the US killed a top Iranian general, experts have warned.

President Donald Trump had Qassem Soleimani destroyed in a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport this morning.

It has seen a dramatic rise in tensions in the Middle East, with the State Department – as well as other western countries – urging citizens to get out of Iraq and Iran.

Tehran-based analyst Mohammad Marandi said the US has ‘declared war’ against the two countries and ‘it’s best for Westerners to evacuate countries like UAE and Iraq immediately’.

Tehran-based analyst Mohammad Marandi (pictured) said the US has ‘declared war’ against the two countries and ‘it’s best for Westerners to evacuate countries like UAE and Iraq immediately’

Qassem Soleimani (left), the highest-ranking general in the Iranian military, was killed in a drone strike outside Baghdad’s airport in the early hours of Friday. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (right) warned of ‘severe revenge’

He added: ‘It is best for all American citizens to leave the region immediately. US occupiers will be forced to leave Iraq.’

Yoel Guzansky, an expert on Iran at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Strategic Studies, also said Iranian retaliation against US or Israeli targets was likely in the short term.

Guzansky said the killing struck a huge blow to Iran and restored American deterrence in the region.

It comes as Tehran announced three days of national mourning for the terrorist general Soleimani.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of ‘jihad’ against the ‘criminals who bloodied their foul hands with his blood’.

Iraq’s prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi predicted a ‘devastating war’ will ravage his country.

An Iranian presenter embraced army spokesman Ramezan Sharif during a tearful live broadcast as they announced Soleimani’s death, the general responsible for shaping Iran’s foreign policy throughout the Middle East, he was revered and loved in his homeland.

The drone strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which besieged the US embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday.