In a big development, The Pentagon said on Thursday that the US military has killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, at the direction of President Donald Trump.

The Pentagon said that US President Donald Trump ordered the killing “in a decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad.” The move also aimed at “deterring future Iranian attack plans”.

“General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more,” the Department of Defense said.

Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force unit, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), were among those killed in the attack.

The strike, which occurred at Baghdad’s international airport on Friday in Iraq, also killed the deputy chief of Iraq’s powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force.

“The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world,” the Pentagon said.

In a statement, the PMF confirmed the pair “were martyred by an American strike.”

Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members, the Pentagon added. The Pentagon also holds Soleimani responsible for orchestrating attacks on coalition bases in Iraq in recent months, including an attack on December 27 that resulted in the deaths of additional American and Iraqi personnel.

PMF supporters and members attempted to storm the US embassy in Baghdad in a separate incident this week.

US President Donald Trump, who was vacationing on his estate in Palm Beach in Florida, sent out a tweet of an American flag, soon after the incident.

The attack by the US shows drastic change of American policy towards Iran. The tension between the US and Iran deepened after Trump’s decision in May 2018 to withdraw the US from Iran’s nuclear deal.