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<\/a><\/p>\nPresident Donald Trump<\/a> made the killing of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani a theme of his re-election campaign on Thursday, drawing cheers from thousands at a rally when he said the death saved lives and delivered \u201cAmerican justice\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n At the campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio, Trump spent a lengthy part of his stump speech defending his order to kill Suleimani and rejecting criticism from Democrats who say he overstepped his authority with the US military\u2019s drone strike against the commander of Iran\u2019s military al-Quds force at Baghdad airport a week ago.<\/span><\/p>\n He accused Suleimani of organising violent protests by Iran-backed groups at the US embassy in Baghdad earlier this month. Trump, who frequently trumpets his support of the US military<\/a>, said that if he had not sent US troops to protect the embassy, the demonstrators might have broken in and killed Americans or taken them hostage, a repeat of the 2011 storming of a US diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, in which the US ambassador was killed.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLast week the United States once again took the bold and decisive action to save American lives and deliver American justice,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Trump\u2019s appearance at the arena in Toledo was his first campaign rally of the 2020 election year, a sign of how critical the state is to his winning a second four-year term in office next November. Trump won Ohio in 2016 by 8 percentage points, flipping a state that had gone for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n Trump and his top advisers have said Suleimani was masterminding \u201cimminent\u201d attacks against American targets in the Middle East, but have drawn criticism for not providing more detail to back up the claim.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSuleimani was actively planning new attacks and he was looking very seriously at our embassies, and not just the embassy in Baghdad, but we stopped him and we stopped him quickly and we stopped him cold,\u201d Trump said.<\/span><\/p>\n Trump placed Suleimani\u2019s death a week ago as part of his tough-on-militants message and an example of what he said was a stronger military under his watch.<\/span><\/p>\n Suleimani\u2019s death prompted an Iranian retaliatory missile strike on Tuesday night<\/a><\/strong><\/span> against two bases hosting US and coalition troops in Iraq. Trump said he had been ready to launch retaliatory strikes until he was told that no American casualties had resulted.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey hit us with 16 missiles and I said, \u2018How many?\u2019 We were ready to go. We were ready to go. I said, \u2018How many? How many died? How many were wounded?\u2019 \u2018Sir, none.\u2019 None. Pretty good warning system. None. \u2018How many were hurt?\u2019 \u2018None, sir,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo we didn\u2019t do anything. We were ready. We were ready. Not that I wanted to. But we were ready,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have no idea. A lot of people got very lucky.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While tensions remain, a broad war between the US and Iran<\/a> has not erupted and Democrats are battling to rein-in Trump\u2019s ability to launch a new conflict in the Middle East.<\/span><\/p>\n