U.S., Iran both appear to signal desire to avoid further conflict

FILE PHOTO: Iranian people carry a coffin of Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, who was killed in an air strike at Baghdad airport, during a funeral procession in Tehran, Iran January 6, 2020. Official Khamenei website/Handout via REUTERS

WASHINGTON/BAGHDAD/DUBAI (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday tempered days of angry rhetoric and suggested Iran was "standing down" after it fired missiles at U.S. forces in Iraq, as both sides looked to defuse a crisis over the U.S. killing of an Iranian general.

Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to hit back after Iran's attack on military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq, itself an act of retaliation for the Jan. 3 U.S. strike that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.