Gen. Salami on Anniversary of Missile Strike on Ain al-Asad:

Retaliation Will Come Sooner or Later

Date: 08 January 2023 - 21:56

News ID: ۱۱۱۱۰۱

TEHRAN -- The chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said Sunday late commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani thwarted the entire plots by Iran’s enemies, stressing that the Islamic Republic will “sooner or later” avenge the US. assassination of the top anti-terror icon.
Major General Hussein Salami made the remarks in a ceremony in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman, General Soleimani’s hometown, to mark the third anniversary of the IRGC’s strike on the U.S.-run Ain al-Asad base in Iraq in retaliation for the assassination of Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.
“The enemy had come in a powerful array to conquer the Islamic world, assail the Islamic Revolution of Iran and the independence and dignity of its people. They intended to occupy the entire Islamic territories from the eastern Mediterranean to the eastern Afghanistan,” Gen. Salami said.
“Haj Qassem’s deed dispelled the charm of all powers and foiled all plots of the enemy.”
Stressing that the enemy’s mistake cannot be forgiven and that Iran is still seeking revenge, the IRGC’s chief commander said, “we avenge every day, we still seek to take revenge on those who perpetrated it, we will take revenge and we will do it sooner or later.”
Gen. Salami also highlighted the Islamic Republic’s achievements and said, “We are just at the beginning of the way and we are moving forward, we are resolving our problems but will never compromise or surrender to the enemy.”
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 the U.S. drone strike authorized by former president Donald Trump.
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 U.S. in the country.
Both commanders were highly revered across the Middle East because of their key role in fighting the Daesh terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.
On January 8, 2020, the IRGC targeted Ain al-Asad in Iraq’s western province of Anbar and

another base with a wave of missile attacks, describing it as a “first slap”.

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

Thirteen ballistic missiles of Fateh-313 and Qiyam missiles were fired at Ain al-Asad, which according to Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, accurately hit their targets and destroyed important American military equipment in the base.

Trump claimed after the missile operation that Iran’s missile attack did not kill or injure anyone, but the Pentagon announced in February of the same year that 109 soldiers with traumatic brain injuries had been identified.

In the first days after the attack, CNN and some European media reported on fear and panic among American soldiers and chaotic situation on the night of the Iranian missile attack.

General McKenzie, then head of the American Central Command, admitted that he had never seen such an attack before.

Lt Colonel Timothy Garland, commander of Ain al-Asad base at the time of the Iranian missile attack, said: “It was really scary, I have never seen anything like this. We were in the shelter. Every time a missile hit, the blast wave shook the entire shelter. We didn’t know what was happening outside.”