TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- The chief of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said Thursday that Iran’s missile attack on a terrorist base in northern Iraq last week was a warning to hostile powers.
The IRGCC fired seven missiles at the headquarters of the PDKI terrorist group, killing at least 15 leaders and members at the base in Koysinjaq.
"The attack against the terrorists in Iraq’s Kurdistan conveys a message to the enemies, particularly those superpowers who think they can impose their evil plots on Iran and bully us,” Maj. Gen. Muhammad Ali Jafari said.
"All those who have forces, bases and equipment within a 2,000 kilometers radius should know that our missiles are highly precise,” he added.
Iran’s armed forces chief of staff said Tuesday that Kurdish leaders in Iraq had given assurances in the past that they would rein in the PDKI and other anti-Iran militants.
"But since last year, provoked by America, they broke this pledge,” Maj. Gen. Mohammad Baqeri told Iran’s ISNA news agency. Iran has called on Iraq to expel the terrorists.
"The victims have obviously left a big hole,” said PDKI Secretary-General Mustafa Muludi, one of around 30 wounded in the strikes.
"We have suffered a great loss because (the dead leaders) had political experience and expertise,” he said.
General Baqeri said the U.S. has been provoking Iraq's terrorists over the past year to launch assaults on Iranian soil despite an earlier promise not to do so.
IRGC’s second-in-command Brigadier General Hussein Salami said on Friday a U.S. war against Iran is no longer a possibility because Washington lacks the political means and international support to launch a new military campaign.
Washington knows "it will be on the losing side if it ever starts a war with Iran and this will help further increase Iran's influence," he said.
"The U.S. military is incapable of engaging us in a battle and the American economy wouldn't be able to support the war either," Salami added.
The IRGC's recent missile attack against Iraq-based terrorists, he said, was a clear warning to Iran's adversaries that the Islamic Republic's response to slightest violations of its sovereignty would be decisive.
The top commander said all U.S. plans to isolate Iran had backfired and many countries were now following Iran's model of resistance against the U.S., the occupying regime of Israel and other "bullying powers."
"The Iranian nation defeated the U.S. when it blocked America's 'New Middle East' project," Salami said. The Iranian nation, he added, also caused America's plan to retake control over the Islamic world to fail.
Back in July, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Iran with "consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before."
Trump's threats came after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned the U.S. leader not to "play with the lion’s tail” after the U.S. unveiled a series of economic and political measures which Tehran said amounted to a declaration of war.
Addressing a group of Iranian diplomats in Tehran, Rouhani said "America must understand well that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars.”
Trump's threat also drew a fiery response from Major General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC's Quds Force.
"Come! We are ready. We are the man of this arena. You know that this war would mean annihilation of all your means. You may begin the war, but it is us who will end it,” he said in a speech which was directed at the U.S. president.