Those behind Gen. Soleimani Assassination Not to Be Safe: IRGC Quds Force Commander

“The commemoration of Martyr Soleimani means the commemoration of all the martyrs of the resistance (movement) and the Islamic world,” Brigadier General Esmail Qa’ani said at a ceremony in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Tuesday that was held in commemoration of the second martyrdom anniversary of General Soleimani in a US drone strike in Iraq in 2020.

The commander said Iran would never forget the martyrdom of General Soleimani and his comrades, adding that the Islamic Republic knows those behind the targeted assassination of the top Iranian anti-terror commander, including former US President Donald Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“The criminal Trump and his accomplices, such as Pompeo, are well known to us. Martyr Soleimani had repeatedly humiliated Pompeo in the region and they thought they won by assassinating him,” Qa'ani said. “They are under the magnifying glass of all the free people of the world and they will not be safe.”

Stressing that the Islamic Republic will take revenge for General Soleimani’s assassination in its own way, the senior Iranian commander highlighted the soaring anti-Washington sentiments in Iraq and said Tehran aspired for the withdrawal of US troops from the region but achieved more than that when Iraq expelled American forces in effect.

"Your exit from the region was part of our plans, but above that, you are now being expelled from Iraq as the noble Iraqi nation will not tolerate the remaining 2,000 of your forces in their country," he noted.

In a similar ceremony held in the southern city of Kerman, the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces said the martyrdom of General Soleimani has rendered the US and the Israeli regime unnerved.

Major General Mohammad Baqeri praised Soleimani’s bravery and wisdom in the battlefield in addition to his prudence in the diplomatic arena, saying his martyrdom has daunted the Americans and Zionists.

General Soleimani and his Iraqi comrade Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were martyred along with their companions in a US drone strike authorized by Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

Both commanders were highly revered across the Middle East because of their key role in fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.

Five days later, in a military operation codenamed Operation Martyr Soleimani, the IRGC launched a volley of ballistic missiles at the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq’s western province of Anbar and at another airbase in Erbil in the Kurdistan Region.

Iran said missile strike was only a “first slap” in its process of taking “hard revenge” and that it would not rest under the US military leaves the Middle East in disgrace.