US President Donald Trump has said that he ordered a precision strike to “terminate” a top Iranian commander who was plotting “imminent and sinister attacks” on Americans, adding that the decision was one of deterrence rather than aggression. President Trump told reporters on Friday that the United States had killed Qasem Soleimani, one of Iran’s top military figures, in a bid to “stop a war.” “We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war,” Trump said in a statement. Iran, in a letter to the United Nations, called the attack state terrorism and an unlawful criminal act. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad warned Americans in Iraq to leave “immediately.”