The newly appointed commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force said the United States killed his predecessor, General Qassem Suleimani, in a cowardly way and promised to “hit his enemy in a manly fashion”.
In a ceremony aimed at introducing the new chief of Quds Force in Tehran Monday, Esmail Qaani said the US hit Suleimani “in a cowardly way, but with God’s grace and through endeavors of freedom-seekers around the world who want vengeance over his blood, we will hit his enemy in a manly fashion.”
“Enemy knows nothing but the language of force, so we will firmly deal with him,” he said, stressing that resistance and steadfastness are the only ways to defeat the enemy.
The US assassinated Suleimani in a strike on Baghdad international airport on January 3. The top Iranian general was martyred alongside the Deputy Commander of Iraq’s Hashd Shaabi paramilitary force Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis and other Iraqi and Iranian commanders.
Iran retaliated to the US attack by launching surface-to-surface missiles at Ain Al-Asad base which hosts US troops in western Iraq. Washington first announced there were no casualties by the Iranian retaliation. However, on Friday it announced that 11 soldiers were injured in the attack on the base.
On Sunday (January 19), Al-Qabas leading Kuwaiti newspaper reported that 16 US military men with fatal injuries sustained during Iran’s retaliatory missile strikes on Ain Al-Asad base have been taken to a hospital in camp Arifjan in Ahmed al-Jaber airbase in Kuwait.
Source: Agencies
