Qassem Soleimani

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader has urged the government to keep Turkey away from the "growing fire" in the Middle East after the United States killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, repeating his party's objection to sending Turkish troops to Libya.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to cut short his trip to Greece following the assassination of Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran's Quds Force, said an official in Netanyahu's office.

The United States killed Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force and spearhead of Iran's spreading military influence in the Middle East, in an airstrike at Baghdad airport, the Pentagon and Iran said.

Top Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an adviser to Soleimani, was also killed in the attack, a militia spokesman said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared the end of Islamic State on Tuesday in an address broadcast live on state TV, reported Reuters.

A senior commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Major General Qassem Soleimani, also declared the end of Islamic State in a message sent to the country's supreme leader Tuesday which was published on Sepah News, the news site of the Guards.

Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani has flown to Moscow for talks with Russia's military and political leadership to discuss the conflict in Syria and deliveries of Russian missiles, sources with knowledge of his trip said on April 15. 

Having the leader of Iran?s elite Quds Force direct Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is complicating the U.S. mission against terrorism and contributing to destabilization in Iraq, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency said March 22.