The US air strike on Baghdad airport that killed General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, the elite expeditionary arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, is a dramatic escalation in the shadowy war between Tehran and Washington and its allies raging across the Middle East.

It will be extremely difficult to prevent the cycle of reprisals and counter-attacks that will now almost certainly ensue from sliding into direct confrontation — and with it the risk of all-out war.

Financial Times