The U.S. is deploying up to 3,500 more troops to the Middle East in a show of force, a Pentagon official said Friday, after an American drone killed a top Iranian general.

A U.S. drone carried out a "precision strike" to kill senior Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis on Friday, a U.S. defense official told AFP. 

"A precision drone strike hit two vehicles at Baghdad airport," the official said. 

Israel held emergency security talks Friday and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a foreign visit as the Jewish state braced itself for fallout from the assassination of a top Iranian military commander in a U.S. air strike.

The State Department on Friday told US citizens to leave Iraq "immediately," after an American strike killed top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.

The Syrian government on Friday condemned the killing of top Iranian and Iraqi commanders in a US strike which was hailed by the opposition.

The strike outside Baghdad airport killed top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and the deputy chief of Iraq's pro-Iran paramilitary organisation, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

The UN Security Council will meet behind closed doors on Friday to discuss an uptick in violence in the embattled Syrian opposition stronghold of Idlib, diplomats told AFP.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo posted a video on Twitter Thursday he said showed Iraqis "dancing in the street" after the United States killed top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.

Iraqi TV and three Iraqi officials said Friday that Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, has been killed in an airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport.

Tunisia's prime minister-designate on Thursday unveiled a proposed government composed of independent figures, after months of negotiations between political parties to fill positions failed.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday warned his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan against any "foreign interference" in Libya, the White House said, after Turkish lawmakers approved a military deployment to shore up the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli.