Israeli PM gives Trump all credit for airstrike

BAGHDAD (AP) – Israel’s prime minister has welcomed the U.S. airstrike that killed Iran’s top general, saying President Donald Trump “deserves all the credit for acting swiftly, forcefully and decisively.”

Benjamin Netanyahu says the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force was “responsible for the death of American citizens and many other innocent people. He was planning more such attacks.”

Israel has long viewed Iran as its greatest threat and has carried out airstrikes in recent years against Iran-backed forces in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Other global powers are warning that the world has just become a more dangerous place after the U.S. killed Iran’s top general.

China, Russia and France, all permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, took a dim view of the U.S. airstrike near Baghdad’s airport early Friday that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

But Britain and Germany also suggested that Iran shared blame for provoking the targeted killing that dramatically ratcheted up tensions in the Mideast.

A German government spokeswoman says the U.S. strike is “a reaction to a whole series of military provocations for which Iran bears responsibility.”