This still image from an IRIB video shot on January 8, 2020, shows missiles launched from Iran agAynst the US military base in Ayn-al Asad in Iraq. RNA – Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says none of its missiles were intercepted during Wednesday's heavy strike that targeted two US bases inside Iraq to avenge the United States’ assassination of its senior commander, Lieutenant General Qasem Soleymani.
There have been initial reports of casualties.
Shortly after the strikes, Iranian officials advised US commanders against embarking on any new military action, warning that a more crushing will be awaiting them. They have been urging Us forces to swiftly leave the region.
In a live televised speech on Wednesday, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, highlighted the need for the US military presence -- the source of all corruption in the region -- to come to an end.
“A slap was delivered last night, but what is important is that the seditious presence of America in the region should be ended,” Ayatollah Khamenei said on Wednesday.
Also speaking on Wednesday, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad-Hoseyn Baqeri called for the US armed forces to withdraw from the region immediately.
“The time has come for the evil rulers of the United States to withdraw their terrorist army forces as quickly as possible from the region.”
The reprisal was staged in the early hours of Wednesday, hitting Ayn al-Asad Airbase in the western Iraqi province of Anbar and another outpost in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
The attacks were launched at 1:20 a.m. local time, the exact moment the US military launched drone strikes on Friday that led to the martyrdom of General Soleymani, the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ (IRGC)
Quds Force, and the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) anti-terror group, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, among others, in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
The missiles were launched shortly before the burial of General Soleymani in his hometown Kerman, which came in the wake of days of enormous funeral processions held in several cities across Iran and neighboring Iraq.
According to Press TV, General Soleymani was cooperating with the PMU and the Iraqi government against the most deadly terrorist outfits to ever afflict the region, including the Daesh Takfiri group.
The Islamic Republic has denounced the assassinations as “an act of state terrorism.”
Tehran had vowed vengeance for the blood of its commander, with Ayatollah Khamenei warning of a “harsh revenge” in a speech that followed the assassinations.
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