Monday , 29 April 2024
President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi holds up a photo of slain Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani as he addresses the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

IRGC commander says Iran seeks to kill Trump, Pompeo, others as revenge for Soleimani

Al-Arabia – A top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander said on Friday that Iran seeks to kill former senior US officials, including former President Donald Trump, for their involvement in the 2020 killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.

“God willing, we will be able to kill Trump… [former secretary of state Mike] Pompeo, [former head of US Central Command General Kenneth] McKenzie and those military commanders who gave the order” to kill Soleimani, Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the IRGC’s aerospace unit, said on state TV.

Hajizadeh made these comments while discussing Iran’s missile attack on the Ain al-Assad air base, which hosts American troops in western Iraq, on January 8, 2020, five days after Soleimani’s killing. No US troops were killed in the attack.

Soleimani, who led the Quds Force, the overseas arm of the IRGC, was killed in a US airstrike in Iraq ordered by Trump.

Iranian officials have repeatedly pledged to avenge Soleimani’s death, as the attack on Ain al-Assad was seen as insufficient retaliation.

Last month, President Ebrahim Raisi, speaking on the third anniversary of Soleimani’s killing, said that revenge for Soleimani was “certain.”

In November, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Iran would “never forget” the killing of Soleimani, adding that Tehran remained committed to avenging his death.

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