President Donald Trump has ordered an airstrike that killed Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, the powerful head of Iran's elite Quds Force, at Baghdad International Airport, the Pentagon confirmed.

The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, which were responsible for the recent attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, officials said.

The audacious airstrike is a potential turning point in the Middle East as the U.S. and Iran teeter on the brink of all-out war, and is expected to draw severe retaliation from Iran and and its regional Shiite allies against Israel and American interests.  

A Pentagon statement issued to DailyMail.com late Thursday, Washington DC time, said: 'At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Quasem Soleimani.' 

Soon after news of the strike spread, Trump, who is currently at Mar-a-Lago, tweeted an image of an American flag, offering no further remarks or explanation. 

Iran called the strike an act of 'international terrorism' and the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed that 'harsh revenge is waiting for the criminals' who killed Soleimani.