Yemen rally told: Gen. Soleimani ‘a sharp sword to confront ‘israel’

Khaled al-Batsh, a member of the politburo of Islamic Jihad, made the remarks at a ceremony organized via video link by Yemen’s National Salvation Government in the capital Sana’a on Saturday to commemorate the martyrs of the resistance front, particularly to mark the third martyrdom anniversary of General Soleimani and his companions in a US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport in 2020.

“Commander Soleimani, far from sectarianism and any other titles, created an Islamic environment for the Palestinian cause and supported the Palestinian resistance with weapons, planning and development, and thwarted US plans in Iraq and Syria,” Batsh told the gathering.

The Islamic Jihad official also stressed that General Soleimani was a “sharp sword to confront the Israeli enemy and a shield to protect the Palestinian people.”

Yemeni Prime Minister Abdulaziz bin Habtoor, the head of the Salvation Government, praised sacrifices by the resistance front’s martyrs and described the event as an “epitome of solidarity and cohesion in the resistance axis.”

“We are in complete harmony in rejecting the Western project and the Zionist project,” Habtoor said, adding that “Martyrs are symbols for us and role models for all free people at the level of the resistance axis in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.”

Jassim al-Muhammad Ali, a member of the resistance in the Arabian Peninsula, also said, “We stand in front of great symbols who sacrificed blood as sacrifices to preserve the dignity of the nation.”

Referring to the resistance front’s martyrs, he stressed that, “these great symbols sought through their struggle to show revolutionary Islam and promote the unification of nations.”

General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and their companions were assassinated in a US drone strike authorized by Former US President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

Two days after the attack, Iraqi lawmakers approved a bill that required the government to end the presence of all foreign military forces led by the US in the country.

Both commanders were highly revered across the Middle East because of their key role in fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.

On January 8, 2020, the IRGC targeted the US-run Ain al-Asad base in Iraq’s western province of Anbar with a wave of missile attacks in retaliation for the assassination of General Soleimani, describing its missile attack as a “first slap”.

According to the Pentagon, more than 100 American forces suffered “traumatic brain injuries” during the counterstrike on the base. The IRGC, however, says Washington uses the term to mask the number of Americans who perished during the retaliation.