°®Âþµº

Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike on Friday. In response, Iran struck the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq and a base in Erbil, security sources said early Wednesday.

"All of our soldiers are safe and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases. Our great American forces are prepared for anything," President Donald Trump said in a Wednesday address to the nation from the White House.

"Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world. No American or Iraqi lives were lost."

Trump announced the United States would be imposing "additional punishing sanctions" on Iran but made no mention of possible retaliation to Tuesday's missile attacks - seen by experts as a measured first response by Iran to the killing of General Soleimani.

Soleimani led the Quds Force, the extraterritorial branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and had been involved in the creation of the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) militias as well as militias which propped up Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.

The killing of Soleimani has rocked regional politics and plunged Washington and Tehran into a dangerous game of posturing cat and mouse. Soleimani's supporters in the region, including in Iraq, expressed outrage over what they argue is US interference in regional security.

US officials have defended the decision to kill Soleimani -who was considered one of the most powerful people in Iran.

While the White House and Pentagon continued to withhold details of the rationale for Friday's drone strike, Secretary of Defence Mark Esper said Soleimani was planning imminent attacks against US assets.