U.S.-Iran tension: A timeline of key events in the breakdown between countries

BY GRACE SEGERS

JANUARY 11, 2020 / 3:29 PM / CBS NEWS

Iran's government admitted Saturday to accidentally shooting down a Ukrainian jetliner in the hours after Iran launched missile attacks on two Iraqi bases housing American troops. The missiles were launched in response to the U.S. airstrikes that killed top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. 

Here is a timeline of the recent tensions between the U.S. and Iran:

• December 27: An American defense contractor was killed in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk. The rockets were launched by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shia militia group.
• December 29: The Pentagon carried out airstrikes against Kataib Hezbollah, two in Syria and one in Iraq, targeting weapon storage facilities and command and control locations the group uses to plan and execute attacks on coalition forces.
• December 30: Kataib Hezbollah said the death toll from U.S. military strikes in Iraq and Syria against its fighters rose to 25. The group vowed to exact revenge for the "aggression of evil American ravens."
• December 31: Thousands of Iraqi protesters gathered at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in response to the U.S. airstrikes against Kataib Hezbollah. A U.S. official told CBS News' Margaret Brennan that many of the protesters were violent actors sent by the Iranian-linked militias.
• January 3: Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and one of Iran's most revered figures, was killed in an airstrike ordered by President Trump. The Pentagon said Soleimani was planning an "imminent" attack. The IRGC also supports the Kataib Hezbollah, the group believed to be responsible for the contractor's death.