Former CIA official Michael Morell on Friday said that the killing of Iran's General Qasem Soleimani will lead to deaths of American civilians. "There will be dead Americans" as a result of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani being killed, former CIA deputy director Michael Morell told CBS This Morning.
"The world is a better place without him. The problem is that comes at a very high cost," he added.
General Qasem Soleimani, the powerful commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq to protect American personnel abroad, the Pentagon announced on Friday, dramatically escalating hostilities between the arch-rivals and spiking tensions in the already volatile Persian Gulf region.
Gen Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite al-Quds force and architect of its regional security apparatus, was killed when a drone fired missiles into a convoy that was leaving the Baghdad International Airport early on Friday. The strike also killed the deputy chief of Iraq's powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force and some local Iran-backed militias.
Gen Soleimani, 62, was widely seen as the second most powerful figure in Iran behind the Ayatollah Khamenei. His Quds Force, an elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, reported directly to the ayatollah and he was hailed as a heroic national figure.
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