ERBIL – In a phone call on Saturday, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif the killing of Iranian commander Qasim Soleimani.

According to a Russian foreign ministry statement, Lavrov “expressed his condolences over the killing.”

Late on Thursday, a US drone strike on a convoy near the Baghdad airport killed Soleimani, long-time head of the Quds Force, the paramilitary arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the head of the Iranian-backed Shia militia, Kata’ib Hizbollah, which was responsible for killing a US contractor last Friday in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base near Kirkuk.

“The ministers stressed that such actions by the United States grossly violate the norms of international law,” the Russian foreign ministry statement added.

Meanwhile, on Friday, top Iranian leaders mourned Soleimani’s death, who, for years, served as the leader of Iran’s extraterritorial operations.

Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif said on Twitter that Soleimani’s killing was “an extremely dangerous and foolish escalation,” stating further, “The US bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism.”

Elsewhere, top Iraqi officials also condemned the killings of both Soleimani and Muhandis, while prominent militia commanders put their fighters on “high alert,” amid fears of further escalation.

(Kurdistan 24)