Deputy Commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Hashem al-Haidari said that the US triggered annihilation of Israel by assassinating IRGC Quds Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and former Deputy Commander of Iraq's PMF Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. RNA - Addressing a ceremony to commemorate General Soleimani and al-Muhandis in Qom city in Central Iran on Thursday, al-Haidari said that the assassination of the two heroes by the US Army in Baghdad practically triggered a countdown for the annihilation of Israel.
He added that more important than the martyrdom of General Soleimani and al-Muhandis was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei's decision to expel the US from the region.
Al-Haidari also said that the great revenge will soon be materialize, which is de facto annihilation of the Zionist regime and the US expulsion from the region.
He said that General Soleimani was not just a military man but he was a role model in social, cultural, and political issues.
Lieutenant General Soleimani and Abu Muhandis were assassinated in a US drone strike on Baghdad International Airport in Iraq on January 3.
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 Soleimani.
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 Ein Al-Assad failed to operate and intercept the Iranian missiles. Unofficial reports said the US army's central radar systems at Ein 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 Soleimani" reprisal operation.
According to Fars News Agency, 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 Ein 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.
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