Leader's Top Military Aide:

Iran’s Retaliatory Operation against US First after WWII

Top Military Aide to the Supreme Leader Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi highlighted that last Wednesday’s ballistic strike against the US military bases in Iraq by Iran’s IRGC, which came in retaliation for Washington’s assassination of anti-terrorism hero Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, was unprecedented since the end of World War II.

News ID: 448502

Date: 18 January 2020 - 21:56

RNA - For the first time since the World War II, Islamic Republic of Iran was the only power that could attack US military bases, Major General Rahim Safavi said on Thursday at Imam Ali Officers’ Academy in Tehran, referring to the retaliatory operation by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) against the US.

“Islamic Republic of Iran is a regional power. Since the US could not do anything when Iran decided to attack its military bases in Iraq in retaliation of US assassination of Iran’s top commander General Soleimani, it shows the high power and authority of the Islamic Republic of Rian in the world,” he added.

Pointing to the move taken by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in targeting US military base in Iraq, Rahim Safavi added, “The IRGC launched a massive airstrike to US Ein al-Assad airbase in Iraq in retaliation of its assassination of Iran’s top commander Lt. General Soleimani and his companions in Iraq.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Rahim Safavi said the US President Donald Trump does not have an understanding of political-security implications and international relations.

US’s Trump does not yet know the power of the Islamic Revolution, leadership and noble nation of the Islamic Iran.

Major General Rahim Safavi pointed to the characteristics of US President Trump and added, “The current president of the United States does not fully understand the political-security concepts and also international law and relations.”

It seems that his chance of winning in the US Presidential Election in 2020 has been plummeted as a result of his failure in Syria, Yemen and assassination of IRGC Quds Force Commander Gen. Soleimani and Second-in-Command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Rahim Safavi highlighted.

General Soleimani was martyred in a targeted assassination attack by US aircraft at Baghdad International Airport last Friday. Pentagon also martyred Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), or Hashad al-Shabi, five Iranian, and five Iraqi militaries.

The strike brought the United States and Iran to the brink of war, with Tehran retaliating by launching missiles at military bases in Iraq housing American troops. On Wednesday, Iran fired more than a dozen missiles at two American military bases in Iraq in retaliation for Washington's assassination of Tehran's elite commander.

Iranian officials branded the airstrike an “act of international terrorism” and promised retaliation. Iran has time and again warned that it will not be the initiator of any war, but reserves the right to self-defense and will give a crushing response to any act of aggression by the United States.

Last Wednesday, the IRGC Aerospace Force launched 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 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 had 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.

Some 80 US army personnel were killed and nearly 200 more wounded in Iran's Wednesday missile attacks, informed sources said.

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.

All flights were cancelled at Erbil airport.

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 WWII.

IRGC officials said none of the missiles had been intercepted.

Following the attack, the IRGC issued a statement immediately after the attacks, declaring that it had fired tens of ground-to-ground missiles at "the airbase occupied by the terrorist and aggressive army of the United States known as Ein Al-Assad" in reprisal for the martyrdom of IRGC Qods Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

The IRGC warned the US to avoid retaliating the Wednesday attack or else "it will face a more painful and crushing response".

According to Fars News Agency, the IRGC Statement also warned "all the US allied states where the terrorist army has a base, any territory that becomes the origin of any hostile and aggressive action against the Islamic Republic of Iran in any way will be targeted".

"We believe that the Zionist regime by no means stands aside from the criminal US regime in these crimes."

The IRGC also called on the American nation to pressure the White House to pull their troops out of the region to avoid further damage and not allow the US rulers to endager the lives of their military men through increasing hatred.

All Iranian underground missile towns were on alert.

The missile attack came hours before the body of General Soleimani was laid to rest.

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