WASHINGTON — Hours after the United States military said it had killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani at the Baghdad airport in order to deter future Iranian attacks on US troops, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rushed to television morning news shows today and placed calls to international counterparts calling for de-escalation and claiming the killing of Soleimani will make the world more safe. But several international allies and even more hawkish Democratic senators expressed open skepticism about Pompeo’s claim that the assassination was justified to avert an imminent threat, and concern that the US killing of the top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force leader could unleash an escalation that could get more Americans and allied forces killed.

“There is no imminent threat aside from that which the president has provoked,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland), one of only two Democratic senators who voted in 2015 against President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, said today.

In a further sign of dismay, even the statements from the United States’ closest allies working with it especially in the fight against the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, were unusually terse and tight lipped.

“We have always recognized the aggressive threat posed by the Iranian Quds force led by Qasem Soleimani,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement after a call with Pompeo. “Following his death, we urge all parties to de-escalate. Further conflict is in none of our interests.”