Donald Trump tells rally he served up 'American justice' by ordering strike that killed Iranian general

Donald Trump says Qasem Soleimani was looking to “blow up” a US embassy
AP

Donald Trump used his first election campaign rally of 2020 to insist he served up “American justice” by ordering a drone strike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

The US leader drew cheers from the crowd in Toledo, Ohio, as he said the move that led to the death of the Middle Eastern country’s top commander saved American lives.

Mr Trump spent a lengthy part of his speech defending the decision and rejecting criticism that overstepped his authority with the US military's strike a week ago.

“Last week the United States once again took the bold and decisive action to save American lives and deliver American justice," he told the thousands of people at the event on Thursday night.

He accused Soleimani of organising violent protests by Iran-backed groups at the US Embassy in Baghdad earlier this month and said if he had not sent US troops to protect the embassy the demonstrators might have broken in and killed Americans or taken them hostage - a repeat of the 2011 storming of a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, in which the US ambassador was killed.

Mr Trump's appearance at the arena in Toledo was his first campaign rally of the 2020 election year, a sign of how critical the state is to his winning a second four-year term in office next November.

The won Ohio in 2016 by 8 percentage points, flipping a state that had gone for Democrat Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012.

Mr Trump and his top advisers have said Soleimani was masterminding "imminent" attacks against American targets in the Middle East, but have drawn criticism for not providing more detail to back up the claim.

“Soleimani was actively planning new attacks and he was looking very seriously at our embassies and not just the embassy in Baghdad, but we stopped him and we stopped him quickly and we stopped him cold," Trump said.

Trump placed Soleimani's death a week ago as part of his tough-on-militants message and an example of what he said was a stronger military under his watch.

The US leader gestures as he delivers a speech to supporters in Toledo on Thursday night
REUTERS

Soleimani's death prompted an Iranian retaliatory missile strike on Tuesday night against two US bases in Iraq, and Mr Trump said he had been ready to launch retaliatory strikes until he was told that no American casualties had resulted.

While tensions remain, a broad war between the United States and Iran has not erupted and Democrats are battling to rein in Trump's ability to launch a new conflict in the Middle East.

Trump mocked Democrats who felt more information was needed on the imminent danger Soleimani posed.

He said he had to make a "split-section" decision and Democratic leaders would have dragged out the process and leaked to the US media if he had given them a heads-up before the operation.

“He was a bad guy. He was a blood-thirsty terror, and he’s no longer a terror, he’s dead. And yet now I see the radical-left Democrats have expressed outrage over the termination of this horrible terrorist," said Mr Trump.

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