Iran has vowed “harsh retaliation” following a US air strike near Baghdad’s airport that killed its top general and the architect of its interventions across the Middle East.
The killing of General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, marks a major escalation in the standoff between Washington and Iran, which has veered from one crisis to another since President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed crippling sanctions.
Trump said today that the general killed was targeted because he was was “plotting to kill” many Americans.
“He should have been taken out many years ago!” the US president tweeted, following up on an early tweet that simply contained the US flag.
The conflict in Iran comes after decades of global interventions carried out by the States.
The US is said to have been involved in 32 distinct and separate bombing campaigns on 24 different countries between 1945 and 1999.
However, the listing below includes later operations as well, taking into account several Middle Eastern conflicts to demonstrate the scale of their overseas operations:
China 1945-46
Korea 1950-53
China 1950-53
Guatemala 1954
Indonesia 1958
Cuba 1959-60
Guatemala 1960
Belgian Congo 1964
Guatemala 1964
Dominican Republic 1965-66
Peru 1965
Laos 1964-73
Vietnam 1961-73
Cambodia 1969-70
Guatemala 1967-69
Lebanon 1982-84
Grenada 1983-84
Libya 1986
El Salvador 1981-92
Nicaragua 1981-90
Iran 1987-88
Libya 1989
Panama 1989-90
Iraq 1991
Kuwait 1991
Somalia 1992-94
Bosnia 1995
Iran 1998
Sudan 1998
Afghanistan 1998
Yugoslavia – Serbia 1999
Afghanistan 2001
Libya 2011
Iraq and Syria 2014 –
Somalia 2011 –
Iran 2020 –
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