In response to an attack by Iranian proxies, that ended up killing an American contractor and four U.S. service men. President Donald Trump authorized the assassination of an Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.

The president would give the final say to kill the Iranian general on Jan. 3, 2020 via drone strike.

“We killed a man who killed many Americans, and many people, thousands of them,” President Trump said in a press interview with NBC.

The authorization of this order has its conditions.

Trump stated seven months ago, that if Iran continued to be hostile towards the United States, and it resulted in an American death that he would strike back.

After Iran struck down a U.S. drone, Trump’s national security advisor, John Bolton, wanted the president to retaliate by signing off on the assassination directive.

President Trump refused this since it hadn’t broken the condition he had set: Killing an American.

U.S intelligence officials kept watch over Soleimani’s location.

C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, coaxed the president into taking a more offensive stance after getting word of threats.

The thought of killing Soleimani was brought up during a discussion in 2017. It was dismissed until Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster retired as C.I.A. director and Bolton stepped in.

Due to the time of Soleimani’s death, this could disprove the Trump Administration’s stated justification for the U.S. drone strike that killed the Iranian general.

In April 2019 Bolton had urged Trump to deem all the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps an organized terrorists’ group.

Iran responded to this by calling the United State’s military a terrorist organization as well.

Since Oct. 2019 Iran has launched over a dozen missiles at bases housing Americans.

The missiles Iran has launched at U.S. bases have become more advanced over time.

Officials say that on Dec. 3, 2019 they used 122mm rockets, which have greater firepower and longer range.

The rockets used for attacks that took place in the months of Oct. and Nov. used 107mm rockets, which are overall weaker.

After Iran responded to the killing of their general and no Americans were killed, the president decided to avoid more conflict.

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