Senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Politburo Mahmoud Sangawi expressed deep regret over the US assassination of IRGC Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, saying that he always wished to fight against the terrorist groups under his command. RNA - "I wished General Soleimani were the commander and Pishmarga of us, the Kurds, because the only thing I saw from him was competence, kindness and compassion and he protected his country well and lost his life on this path," Sangawi said in an interview with the Persian-language Tasnim news agency on Tuesday.
He described General Soleimani as a source of honor for the Iranians, and said, "He did not fear anything. Although he knew that he would be martyred, he continued his fight and he wished to be martyred on this path."
"We had a common goal which was fighting against a common enemy (the ISIL terrorist group) as the enemy of humanity," Sangawi said.
Lieutenant General Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike on Baghdad International Airport in Iraq on January 3.
The airstrike also martyred Deputy Commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. 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.
According to Fars News Agency, 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.
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.
847/940