Oil prices rocketed nearly 4% in the morning of Asia trading hours, following reports that a top Iranian military general was killed in an airstrike in Baghdad.
Brent crude soared 3.98% to $68.90 per barrel, while U.S. crude surged 3.87% to $63.55 per barrel.
General Qassim Soleimani, who leads a special forces unit of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, was reportedly killed, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, Iraqi television and officials said.
A senior Iraqi politician and a high-level security official confirmed to the Associated Press that Soleimani and al-Muhandis were among those killed in the attack.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said al-Muhandis had arrived to the airport in a convoy to receive Soleimani whose plane had arrived from either Lebanon or Syria. The airstrike occurred as soon as he descended from the plane to be greeted by al-Muhandis and his companions, killing them all.
The attack came amid tensions with the United States after a New Year’s Eve attack by Iran-backed militias on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The two-day embassy attack which ended Wednesday prompted President Donald Trump to order about 750 U.S. soldiers deployed to the Middle East.
Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy at RBC Markets, told CNBC via email: “This brings us to the precipice of a full blown shooting war with Iran — not a shadow war or a proxy war.”
“It is almost impossible to overstate the implications of this event,” she added.
Earlier, in a note before the reports of the attack, Croft had written that Iraq is a “potential tripwire for a direct clash between Washington and Tehran in 2020.”
Top Iranian general killed in US airstrike in Baghdad, Pentagon confirms
Reference: CNBC
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