Is there really a US$80 million bounty on the US president's head?

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned there would be "harsh retaliation" for the airstrike US President Donald Trump ordered on the head of the country's elite Quds Force.

Evan Vucci/AP If Iran were to retaliate and attack the US, President Donald Trump said he was prepared to strike "in a disproportionate manner".

At one of Soleimani's funerals in Mashhad, an unnamed eulogist appeared to call on the Iranian people to aid that retaliation by donating money. In a video shared to Twitter, one of the funeral organisers could be heard encouraging the 80 million-strong population to put aside US$1 each.

The translated video explained the US$80m raised would be given to the person who brought the head of the person responsible for ordering the attack.

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NBC News Tehran bureau chief and correspondent Ali Arouzi wrote on Twitter the organiser was calling for a "bounty on President Trumps [sic] head".

According to local media outlet Al Arabiya, the man said: "We are 80 million Iranians, if each one of us puts aside one American dollar, we will have 80 million American dollars, and we will reward anyone who brings us [Trump's] head with that amount."The funeral and the speech was broadcast live on local television.



Various international media outlets reported on the speech and it is being widely discussed on social media, but it's important to remember these words were uttered at a funeral and could simply be political rhetoric.

AP Revolutionary Guard General Qasem Soleimani was killed by a US airstrike in Iraq.

Since the airstrike, the relationship between the two nations had since soured and numerous threats were traded - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told Soleimani's relatives America would see the effects of their actions "over many many years to come".

US citizens in Iraq were urged to leave "immediately" and all consular services from the embassy in Baghdad were suspended.

The attack, and any retaliation, could create conflict in the whole region, endangering the safety of US troops in Iraq and Syria. But Secretary of State Michael Pompeo confirmed to Fox News Sunday troops would remain in Iraq. There were currently around 5200 American troops based there.

If Iran were to retaliate and attack the US, Trump said he was prepared to strike "in a disproportionate manner".

The US Defence Department said it killed General Qasem Soleimani because he "was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region".

Pompeo told CNN the US made the right decision by green lighting the airstrike. "We took a bad guy off the battlefield."