USA

NORTH CONWAY, N.H. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidates are lambasting President Donald Trump’s decision to kill Iran’s top general in an airstrike, a move that has thrust foreign policy to the forefront of the primary and revived intraparty disputes over military intervention in the Middle East.

Leading candidates in the Democratic primary were united in describing Gen. Qassem Soleimani as a murderer responsible for the deaths of Americans. But they also slammed Trump as reckless and ill-prepared for the consequences — and retaliation — likely to follow the killing.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A man stabbed two people, one fatally, inside a restaurant during a violent string of attacks Friday at a shopping plaza in Texas’ capital city that began with an assault at a coffee shop and ended with the suspect leaping off a roof, police said.

The attacks on a busy downtown avenue of restaurants and apartments just south of the Texas Capitol terrified customers stopping for their morning coffee on the way to work. It was the city of Austin’s first homicide of 2020.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A survivor of an Alaska crab boat sinking that left five fellow fishermen missing said the crew went from “sleeping to swimming” in minutes as rough seas and ice battered their vessel on New Year’s Eve.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With a single drone strike, President Donald Trump did more than just take out an avowed enemy of the United States. He may have have also upended a central element of his foreign policy.

The Friday strike that killed the most prominent Iranian general may have ended any chance that he would get the United States out of the “endless wars” in the Middle East that he has railed against since taking office.

The killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad has the world bracing for a possible retaliation, with many fearing it could lead to a wider conflict.

NEW YORK (AP) — After Friday’s targeted killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, newsrooms struggled with the question: Had the United States just carried out an assassination? And should news stories about the killing use that term?

The AP Stylebook, considered a news industry bible, defines assassination as “the murder of a politically important or prominent individual by surprise attack.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — In 2007, U.S. commandos watched as a convoy carrying a powerful Iranian military leader made its way to northern Iraq.

It was a prime opportunity to take out Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who had been accused of aiding Shiite forces that killed thousands of American troops in Iraq. But ultimately, military leaders passed on a strike, deferring to deep concerns about the potential fallout of such a provocative attack.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday he ordered the killing of a top Iranian general “to stop a war,” not start one, but in the tense aftermath the Pentagon braced for retaliation by sending more troops to the Middle East. Democrats complained that Trump hadn’t consulted Congress, and some worried that the strike made war more likely.

03 Jan 2019; MEMO: The United States (US) State Department yesterday issued a statement, calling on its citizens to avoid travelling to Iraq.

“All Americans in Iraq are at high risk of violence and kidnapping,” the foreign office said.

NEW YORK, Jan 03 (APP): The United States should exercise its moral authority and help secure freedom for the people of Indian occupied Kashmir, now languishing under a repressive lockdown since August 5, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the U.S. Asad Khan has said.

WASHINGTON, Jan 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Iran Revolutionary Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, who died in Baghdad “in a decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad,” the Pentagon said.

“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.