Breaking news. In a major escalation and tensions between the U.S. and Iran, the top Iranian general has been killed in an airstrike while leaving the Baghdad airport.

The Pentagon confirmed the U.S. military carried out the attack.

Qasem Soleimani was one of the most powerful figures in the Middle East, and had been the top military man in Iran for more than 20 years.

This attack comes after Iranian-back groups breached the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad just two days ago.

We now turn to ABC's Kara Phillips, who's with President Trump in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Kara.

When reports of the airstrike at the Baghdad airport broke tonight, there was one question

on everyone's mind. Was the United States responsible? Well, the president was cryptic. He responded

with only a picture tweeting out the image of the American flag.

Breaking news just minutes ago from Iran, what the military there is now admitting about that downed Ukrainian plane.

Good evening, Leland.

Evening, Shannon, to you.

And we're learning a lot more about that operation from the beginning to the end.

It resulted in the death of Qasem Soleimani.

It went far beyond a drone strike and included U.S. Army Special

Operations soldiers on the ground that actually followed his convoy. Half a mile behind when

the missile from the Reaper drone hit, they were on the scene within a minute or two. Immediately

following the drone strike, they did what in the businesses called a bomb damage assessment and took pictures of the scene, along with confirming that the drone got the right car, and Soleimani was dead.

Many of the pictures we have obtained include graphic and close-up pictures of the Iranian general's body.

We're not going to show you those tonight. They're simply too gruesome. He is missing limbs and is grossly disfigured. A source who both served in

Iraq and saw the pictures noted that Soleimani died in much the same way the Americans he killed

died. The

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