IRGC Commander: Killing All American Leaders Not Enough to Avenge General Soleimani's Martyrdom

Killing of all American leaders would not be enough to avenge the martyrdom of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, General Pakpour told reporters on the sidelines of his visit to General Soleimani's tomb and paying tribute to him.

"We have to follow Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani's path and avenge him through other methods and if all American leaders are killed, this will still not avenge the blood of Lieutenant General Soleimani," he said. 

General Pakpour added that the IRGC's attack on Ein al Asad Airbase and the movements that took place in Israel and the US and some other countries, were shocking responses after the martyrdom of General Soleimani and showed that "our enemies do not dare to take any action against the Islamic Republic of Iran".

General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were martyred along with their associates in a US drone strike that was authorized by then-President Donald Trump near the Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

The two iconic anti-terror commanders are greatly admired for their important role in fighting and decimating the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.

Two days after the dastardly attack shook the region, Iraqi lawmakers unanimously approved a bill that required the government to end the presence of all US-led foreign military forces in the Arab country.

Less than a week after the assassination, the IRGC launched a volley of ballistic missiles at the Ein Al-Asad airbase in Western Iraq, in a military operation codenamed Operation Martyr Soleimani.

Iran, which vowed ‘hard revenge’ over the killing of its celebrated commander, said the missile strike was only a “first slap” in exacting the revenge and that it would not rest until the US military abandons the region in disgrace.

Owing to Baghdad’s reluctance to expel the foreign forces within a stipulated timeframe, the US-led coalition convoys in Iraq have often been targeted by the resistance groups.