Tensions Rise Between U.S. and Iran.

An attempt by supporters of Iran-backed militias to storm the U.S. Embassy ended on Wednesday, as protesters withdrew from the area after their leadership ordered the suspension of a violent challenge to American troop presence in Iraq.

“At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the agency said in a statement.

The embassy attack came after U.S. airstrikes killed 25 fighters of the Kataeb Hezbollah in Iraq, which is backed by Iran. The strikes were retaliation for the killing of an American contractor and the wounding of Iraqi service members during a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base.

It also escalates already heightened tensions in the region and between the U.S. and Iran over the last year.

SOURCE: https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2049534/statement-by-the-department-of-defense/