Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that killing Iran's chief terrorism mastermind would bring 'more freedom' to Iraq, and that it's 'wrong' to say Qassem Soleimani's death makes the world a more dangerous place.

French Secretary of State for European Affairs Amélie de Montchalin told RTL radio on Friday that 'we have woken up to a more dangerous world.'

Pompeo fired back on CNN. 'Yeah, well, the French are just wrong about that,' he said. 'The world's a much safer place today, and I can assure you Americans in the region are much safer today, after the demise of Qassem Soleimani.'

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted Friday that it's 'just wrong' to see the killing of Iran's top general as a prelude to increased regional or global danger

A U.S. airstrike at Baghdad International Airport on Thursday killed Qassem Soleimani, pictured in this file image; Zoleimani led Iran's Quds Force, an elite paramilitary force within the nation's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tasked with carrying out unconventional warfare and intelligence activities

Demonstrators burned U.S. and British flags during a protest against Soleimani's assassination in Tehran on Friday

Pompeo tweeted a video fo Iraqis 'dancing in the street for freedom'

Like most European nations that weighed in overnight, France counseled calm.

'In such operations, when we can see an escalation is underway, what we want above all is stability and de-escalation,' Montchalin said. 'Our role is not to take sides, but to talk with everyone.'

But Pompeo insisted in a Fox News Channel interview that taking out the leader of Iran's Quds Force 'was necessary.'

'There was an imminent attack. The orchestrator, the primary motivator for the attack was Qassem Soleimani,' he said. 'He's got hundreds of American lives, blood on his hands.'

Pompeo, a former CIA director whose time as President Donald Trump's top diplomat could be short if he runs for an open U.S. Senate seat this year, said the U.S. has embraced the role of creating 'more freedom for Iraqis, more opportunity for Iraqi people to stand up and get an independent, free and sovereign Iraq built.'

'We gave the Iraqis a real opportunity,' he said.

French Secretary of State for European Affairs Amélie de Montchalin said in a radio interview Friday morning that killing Soleimani had made the world more dangerous

Iran could carry out a wide range of retaliatory acts in response to the killing of Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad Airport

Pompeo tweeted a short video clip of Iraqis dancing and pulling an Iraqi flag banner through what appeared to be a Baghdad street.

'They're happy,' he said on Fox News. 'The absence of Qassem Soleimani is a boon to this region, and we reduced risk last night.'

Pompeo declined to discuss many details of the 'intelligence-based assessment' that drove Trump's decision to target Soleimani.

'He was actively plotting in the region to take actions—a "big action" as he described it—that would have put dozens if not hundreds of American lives at risk. We know it was imminent,' he told CNN.

'Last night was the time that we needed to strike to make sure that this imminent attack ... was disrupted,' he said.

'What was sitting before us was his travels throughout the region, his efforts to make a significant strike against Americans,' Pompeo said separately on Fox News. 'There would have been many Muslims killed as well, Iraqis and people in other countries.'

Iran has threatened to retaliate after the overnight U.S. air strike that marked a dramatic escalation in the Iran-U.S. conflict in the Middle East.

The strike was authorized by Trump, who separately said on Friday that Soleimani 'was plotting to kill many more' Americans but offered no other details.

Democratic lawmakers said they had not been briefed about any imminent Iranian plot or the planned U.S. strike, and warned the Trump administration against pursuing war without congressional approval.

Demonstrators protested Friday against Zoleimani's assassination in Tehran

Pompeo said Soleimani was planning 'an imminent attack' when President Donald Trump gave the order to take him out

New York Rep. Max Rose, a U.S. Army veteran, told CNN he wanted more information about the underlying intelligence that drove the strike and what the administration's plan was to deal with an inevitable Iranian response.

Republican lawmakers echoed Pompeo, lauding the U.S. strike and praising Trump for taking the action.

'The escalation is not on our part,' Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who served in the U.S. Air Force, told CNN.

Pompeo told Fox that the United States has fortified its assets in the region and is prepared for any possible retaliation, including a cyberattack.

'Trump and the entire United States government is prepared to respond appropriately,' he said.