LEBANON (Dispatches) – A senior Hezbollah official said Monday Iran’s missile strikes on U.S. military bases in Iraq in retaliation for the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani shattered the United States’ myth of invincibility.
"Iran, by bombing the bases, exposed the American arrogance and put an end to the U.S. invincibility myth. It demonstrated that it stands … prepared for any confrontation,” Nabil Qaouk, the deputy head of Hezbollah’s executive council, said in a memorial service in Lebanon’s southern town of Khiam.
The cleric said the assassination of Gen. Soleimani marks the end of the American presence in Iraq and the region, "so the United States no longer has a future in the region”.
The Iranian missile attack on Ain al-Assad air base marks the start of a retaliation, which will not end until the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and West Asia, he added.
On Sunday, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the Iranian missile strikes sent the message that all American targets in West Asia are within the range of Iranian missiles.
"This attack was also a message to the Zionist entity… Let stupid (Zionist PM Benjamin) Netanyahu know the wrong spot he has put his entity in,” Nasrallah said.
"Look at the faces of the U.S. leaders… Do they look like victorious faces?” he said.
The Hezbollah chief then slammed mainstream Arab news networks for underreporting the Iranian strikes and the extent of damage.
The U.S. assassination has drawn a wave of condemnation from officials and movements throughout the world, and triggered huge public protests across the region.