Iran Vows to Take Action against US in Revenge for Assassination of General Soleimani

“We neither forgive nor forget the assassination of our martyred General and our officials have said that we do not do threats, as we take action,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday.

He said that the US should account for the cowardly assassination of General Soleimeni, and added that election of another person than Trump as the new US president will not undermine Iran’s resolve to take revenge for the IRGC Quds Force commander’s martyrdom.

^{Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh}

The Iranian foreign ministry in a statement on Saturday underlined that the US assassination of General Soleimani was a terrorist act, adding that the culprits behind the crime have been identified.

Washington’s assassination of General Soleimani was a “criminal terrorist act”, the statement said.

It added that the “Islamic Republic of Iran’s security and military forces have been making efforts to collect information on the criminals involved in the heinous assassination and a number of them have been identified and others will be identified soon”, it said.

The Iranian foreign ministry announced that the country has filed 5 letters with the UN Secretariat on the US criminal act of assassination of General Soleimani.

Lieutenant General Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike on Baghdad International Airport in Iraq on January 3.

The airstrike also martyred Deputy Commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The two were martyred in an American airstrike that targeted their vehicle on the road to the airport.

Five Iranian and five Iraqi military men were martyred by the missiles fired by the US drone at Baghdad International Airport.

On January 8, the IRGC Aerospace Force started heavy ballistic missile attacks on US Ein Al-Assad airbase in Southwestern Iraq near the border with Syria and a US operated airbase in Erbil in retaliation for the US assassination of General Soleimani.

Ein Al-Assad is an airbase with a 4km runway at 188m altitude from sea levels, which is the main and the largest US airbase in Iraq. Early reports said the radar systems and missile defense shields in Ein Al-Assad failed to operate and intercept the Iranian missiles. Unofficial reports said the US army’s central radar systems at Ein Al-Assad had been jammed by electronic warfare.

The second IRGC reprisal attack targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan Region in the second leg of “Martyr Soleimani” reprisal operation.

Iraq said the attacks had not taken any toll from its army men stationed at these two bases. The US army had blocked entrance into Ein Al-Assad to everyone, including the Iraqi army.

It was the first direct attack on the US army ever since world war two.

The IRGC officials said none of the missiles had been intercepted.

Meantime, Iran announced in late June that it had issued arrest warrants for 36 officials of the US and other countries who have been involved in the assassination of the martyred General Soleimani.

“36 individuals who have been involved or ordered the assassination of Hajj Qassem, including the political and military officials of the US and other governments, have been identified and arrest warrants have been issued for them by the judiciary officials and red alerts have also been issued for them via the Interpol,” Prosecutor-General of Tehran Ali Alqasi Mehr said.

He said that the prosecuted individuals are accused of murder and terrorist action, adding that US President Donald Trump stands at the top of the list and will be prosecuted as soon as he stands down presidency after his term ends.