Thousands of furious Iranians have vowed revenge against the United States and chanted ‘death to America’ during the funeral of General Qassem Soleimani after he was taken out by an airstrike.
As the funeral procession in the memory of Soleimani and the Iraqi militia leader he was with during the airstrike was taking place, mourners hoisted various signs and flags and yelled “America is the Great Satan” and “death to America.”
Along with the two commanders, five other Iraqi militiamen and four other Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards were eliminated after the MQ-9 Reaper Drone launched missiles at their convoy.
While the top Iranian officials have promised revenge and claimed that the US made a major mistake, the Iraqi president accused America of a “brazen violation of Iraq’s sovereignty” and threatened to expel all US military personnel from the country.
Joining Iranians in grieving are prominent figures and politicians including Supreme Leader Khamenei.
“All friends – & enemies – know that Jihad of Resistance will continue with more motivation & definite victory awaits the fighters on this blessed path. The loss of our dear General is bitter. The continuing fight & ultimate victory will be more bitter for the murderers & criminals,” he announced.
“A crushing revenge will be taken for Soleimani’s unjust assassination,” Defense Minister Amir Hatami added.
“The US’ act of international terrorism, targeting & assassinating General Soleimani—THE most effective force fighting Daesh (ISIS), Al Nusrah, Al Qaeda et al—is extremely dangerous & a foolish escalation. The US bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism,” Iran’s foreign minister proclaimed.
The airstrike on Soleimani followed shortly after Iran-backed Iraqi militiamen besieged the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and set their reception on fire.
As Pentagon claimed, the US President ordered the attack on the Iranian general in order “to protect U.S. personnel abroad.”
In addition, Pentagon announced that General Soleimani had to be taken out because he was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.”
Following the threats of retaliation from Iran’s side, Trump has taken to Twitter to warn that an attack on “any Americans or American assets” would lead to “VERY FAST AND VERY HARD” hits on fundamental Iranian sites.
“Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently hundreds of Iranian protesters,” the POTUS tweeted.
“He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years.
“Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!”
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Replaced!