WASHINGTON – Confronted by persistent questions about his military action in the Middle East, President Donald Trump and his top officials offered a string of fresh explanations Friday, with Trump now contending Iranian militants had planned major attacks on four U.S. embassies. Just hours earlier, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said the U.S. didn't know when or where attacks might occur. Trump and other officials insisted anew that Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani had posed an imminent threat to the U.S., but they rebuffed repeated attempts to explain what they meant by "imminent." Trump, meanwhile, announced additional sanctions against Iran, which he had promised after a barrage of missiles fired by the Islamic State against American bases in Iraq earlier this week. Those Iranian missiles, which caused no casualties, were prompted by the U.S. drone strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani last week in Baghdad.

"But as times change and we get to a place where we can deliver up on what I believe and the president believes is our right structure, with fewer resources dedicated to that mission, we will do so," he added. Mr. Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin also announced new sanctions on Iranian officials and on a few companies, including two in China, involved in the production and export of Iranian steel and other metals. The Trump administration had already imposed major sanctions on Iran's metals industry after Mr. Trump's withdrawal in 2018 from a landmark nuclear agreement with Iran, so analysts said the new sanctions would have little additional impact. Iraqi lawmakers voted on Sunday to expel United States forces after the American drone strike that killed 10 people in a two-car convoy -- Maj. The prime minister has not signed the bill yet, but had been criticizing the American troop presence in Iraq since a series of recent actions by the United States military.

WASHINGTON – U.S. officials said Thursday it was "highly likely" that an Iranian anti-aircraft missile downed a Ukrainian jetliner late Tuesday, killing all 176 people on board. They suggested it could well have been a mistake. The crash came just a few hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack against Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops amid a confrontation with Washington over the U.S. drone strike that killed an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general last week. Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence, said they had no certain knowledge of Iranian intent. But they said the airliner could have been mistaken for a threat.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – Iran's launching of more than a dozen missiles at American-led forces in Iraq on Wednesday came after years of preparing for a confrontation with its superpower foe, whose forces are vastly larger and more advanced. The Persian Gulf country has more than 500,000 active-duty personnel, including 125,000 members of its elite Revolutionary Guard, according to a report last year by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. But international sanctions and restrictions on arms imports have made it hard for Iran to develop or buy more sophisticated weaponry. To compensate for the imbalance, Iran has developed "asymmetric" responses -- ballistic missiles, deadly drones and a web of militia allies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, among other things -- with the aim of being able to inflict pain while avoiding the traditional battlefield. "From a conventional military perspective, they would get absolutely hammered," said a British former military commander who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Americans should be on heightened alert for cyberattacks after Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at two military bases in Iraq where U.S. troops are stationed late Tuesday, security researchers say. Iran could target private businesses and government infrastructure to avenge last week's killing of its top military commander as tensions between Tehran and Washington reach one of their highest points since the 1979 Iranian revolution. "I am not predicting it will happen, but if it happens, I won't be surprised," said Steven Bellovin, a computer science professor at Columbia University School of Engineering. A cyber conflict has been silently raging for years. In retaliation for the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad last week, Iran could target the power and electricity you use, the smart devices you carry or your bank account, security experts say.

TEHRAN – Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wept Monday over the casket of a top general killed last week in a U.S. airstrike, his prayers joining the wails of mourners who flooded the streets of Tehran demanding retaliation against America for a slaying that has drastically raised tensions across the Middle East. The Tehran funeral for Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani drew a crowd said by police to be in the millions, filling thoroughfares and side streets as far as the eye could see. Although there was no independent estimate, aerial footage and journalists suggested a turnout of at least 1 million, and the throngs were visible on satellite images of Tehran taken Monday. Authorities later brought his remains and those of the others to Iran's holy city of Qom, where another massive crowd turned out. The outpouring of grief was an unprecedented honor for a man viewed by Iranians as a national hero for his work leading the Guard's expeditionary Quds Force.

Fox News media analyst Howie Kurtz, host of'Media Buzz,' breaks down the coverage of the U.S. drone strike that killed Iran's top general, Qassem Soleimani. The Associated Press was ridiculed on Monday for reporting on the feelings of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who openly cried during the funeral of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. "Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wept openly at the funeral for Gen. Qassem Soleimani. His tears give insight into how the death of the commander killed in a U.S. strike is being felt personally by the supreme leader," the AP sent from its verified Twitter account. The tweet accompanied a link to a story headlined, "Iranian leader's tears a sign of respect for slain general."

WASHINGTON – U.S. lawmakers have few options for tamping down any escalation by President Donald Trump of tensions with Iran, despite Democrats' outrage over his failure to inform Congress in advance about a strike against a top Iranian military commander. Members of Congress begin to return from their year-end holiday recess on Monday, and Democrats said they will attempt quickly to pass legislation to bar Trump -- or any future U.S. commander-in-chief -- from conducting a campaign against Iran without obtaining Congress' approval. Late on Sunday, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Democratic-led chamber would introduce and vote this week on a War Powers Resolution that would force Trump to stop military action against Iran within 30 days. But with Trump's fellow Republicans in control of the Senate and showing little inclination to break from their party's leader, there is scant expectation any legislation could win enough support to become law. Longtime foes Tehran and Washington have been in a war of words since Friday, when Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad airport.

President Trump continued issuing threatening warnings Sunday that more action would come if Iran retaliates against the U.S. for the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, which critics have been calling an illegal action taken without consulting Congress. "These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner," he tweeted Sunday afternoon. "Such legal notice is not required, but is given nevertheless!" Many Democrats in Congress had said the Trump administration failed to consult with legislative leaders before conducting the drone attack Friday against Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force, and the White House faced a barrage of questions about the killing's legality. "I really worry that the actions the president took will get us into what he calls another endless war in the Middle East. He promised we wouldn't have that," said Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate's top Democrat.

TEHRAN – Black-clad mourners packed Iran's second city Mashhad on Sunday as the remains of top Gen. Qassem Soleimani were paraded through the streets after he was killed in a US strike. "Iran's wearing black, revenge, revenge," they chanted as darkness fell and they followed a truck carrying Soleimani's coffin towards the floodlit Imam Reza shrine. The mourners threw scarves onto the roof of the truck so that they could be blessed by the "blood of the martyr. Soleimani, who spearheaded Iran's Middle East operations as commander of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, was killed in a U.S. drone strike Friday near Baghdad airport. The attack was ordered by President Donald Trump, who said the Quds commander had been planning an "imminent" attack on U.S. diplomats and forces in Iraq. Soleimani's remains had been returned before dawn to the southwestern city of Ahvaz, where the air resonated with Shiite chants and shouts of "Death to America" during a procession. People held aloft portraits of Soleimani, one of the country's most popular public figures, who is seen as a hero of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The "million-man" turnout in Mashhad, northeastern Iran, forced the cancellation of a Sunday night ceremony in Tehran, said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who urged citizens instead to attend a memorial Monday at Tehran University. In the face of growing Iraqi anger over the strike, the country's parliament Sunday urged the government to oust the roughly 5,200 American troops in Iraq. Soleimani's assassination ratcheted up tensions between arch-enemies Tehran and Washington and sparked fears of a new Middle East war. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed "severe revenge" and declared three days of mourning. Late Saturday Trump warned that America would target 52 sites "important to Iran & Iranian culture" and hit them "very fast and very hard" if American personnel or assets were attacked. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that "targeting cultural sites is a WAR CRIME.