Trump to pay dearly for assassination of counter-terror commanders

Qais al-Khazali made the remarks at a ceremony in commemoration of the two revered commanders and their companions in the capital Baghdad.

“We declare our full allegiance that we will definitely take revenge for the blood of our fallen commanders and martyrs. We will not shy away from telling and exposing the truth,” Khazali said.

“It is high time we knew perfectly well about circumstances surrounding the assassination,” the senior Iraqi politician pointed out.

The chairman of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) also said the enemies made grave miscalculations as to General Soleimani’s assassination, and the huge funeral processions held for the commander clearly showed his immense popularity.

“The participation of millions of people in General Soleimani’s funeral revealed that he holds a high status in people’s hearts. Although Donald Trump has orchestrated the crime of his targeted killing, it would not take long for the former US president to be thrown into the dustbin of history,” Falih al-Fayyadh said.

General Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of the PMU, and their companions were assassinated in a US drone strike authorized by Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.

Two days after the attack, Iraqi lawmakers approved a bill that required the government to end the presence of all foreign military forces led by the US in the country.

Both anti-terror commanders were highly revered across the Middle East because of their key role in fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.

On January 8, 2020, the IRGC targeted the US-run Ain al-Asad base in Iraq’s western province of Anbar with a wave of missile attacks in retaliation for the assassination of Gen. Soleimani.

The Pentagon later said that more than 100 American forces suffered “traumatic brain injuries” during the counterstrike on the base.

Iran has described the missile attack on Ain al-Assad as a “first slap”.