Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami on Thursday underlined that the world and history will not forget Tehran’s slap in Washington’s face by retaliatory missile strikes against Ain al-Assad base in Iraq.
A strong slap of Iranian armed forces in the face of the US by attacking their base was done at the highest standards in terms of timing, quality and accuracy of precision-striking missiles, General Hatami said in an address to a conference on quality standards of the Armed Forces.
He added that the effect of this slap by the Iranian nation will remain in history.
Responding to US actions was a public demand of the Iranian people, and if this vicious act had been remained unanswered, the enemy would repeat its criminal approach, General Hatami said.
The Iranian defense minister noted that the Islamic Republic of Iran is always prepared to deal with any potential threat.
Timely response requires power, he said, adding that Iran enjoys all the elements of power and will to respond to any aggression and it will respond to any threat at any level with high-quality defensive weapons.
Lieutenant General Suleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike on Baghdad International Airport in Iraq on January 3.
The airstrike also martyred Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), or Hashd al-Shaabi. The two were martyred in an American airstrike that targeted their vehicle on the road to the airport.
Five Iranian and five Iraqi militaries were martyred by missiles fired by the US drone at Baghdad International Airport.
On January 8, the IRGC Aerospace Force started heavy ballistic missile attacks on US Ein Al-Assad airbase in Southwestern Iraq near the border with Syria and a US operated airbase in Erbil in retaliation for the US assassination of General Suleimani.
Ein Al-Assad is an airbase with a 4km runway at 188m altitude from sea levels, which is the main and the largest US airbase in Iraq. Early reports said the radar systems and missile defense shields in Ain Al-Assad failed to operate and intercept the Iranian missiles. Unofficial reports said the US army’s central radar systems at Ain Al-Assad had been jammed by electronic warfare.
The second IRGC reprisal attack targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan Region in the second leg of “Martyr Suleimani” reprisal operation.
Iraq said the attacks had not taken any toll from its army men stationed at these two bases. The US army had blocked entrance into Ain Al-Assad to everyone, including the Iraqi army.
It was the first direct attack on the US army ever since world war two.
The IRGC officials said none of the missiles had been intercepted.
Source: Fars news agency
