In the days surrounding President Donald Trump's approval of a drone strike that took out Iranian Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani, there was internal dissent inside the Pentagon over whether to carry out the strike and if the Pentagon had the legal backing for the move, a former senior administration official told Al-Monitor.

The debate inside the Defense Department centered around fears of a potential escalation with Iran, the official said, after tit-for-tat clashes since May 2019, culminating in suspected Iranian-backed drone and cruise missile strikes against a refining facility in Saudi Arabia in September.

Officials also feared that potential blowback inside Iraq could hamper the US-led campaign to defeat the Islamic State (IS), which the coalition suspended on Sunday amid threats from Iran.

“Some believed it was too escalatory and would not end the threat, some believed we should do it but not in Iraq,” said a former senior administration official with knowledge of the deliberations. “There was dissent on whether to do it, where to [do] it and under what authority.”