President Ebrahim Raisi vowed on Tuesday that the killing of Iran’s top commander in a U.S. drone strike three years ago would be avenged at a ceremony attended by thousands.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a strike that killed 62-year-old General Qassem Soleimani on January 3, 2020.
Soleimani has commanded the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and has been hailed by the Iranian authorities. He was one of Iran’s most popular celebrities, spearheading Iran’s Middle East campaign and considered a hero of the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88.
“We have not and will not forget the blood of the martyr Soleimani,” Raisi said at Tehran’s Grand Mosala Mosque.
He added that the “murderers and perpetrators” of his murder should know that “revenge on the blood of the martyr Soleimani is certain and they will not sleep easily.”
Soleimani died along with Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a strike near Baghdad airport.
Days later, Iran retaliated by firing missiles at nearby Iraqi bases housing US and other coalition forces. No U.S. troops were killed, but dozens suffered traumatic brain injuries from the blast, according to Washington.
Amid mounting tensions, Iran accidentally shot down a Ukrainian airliner on January 8, 2020, killing all 176 people on board.
The Pentagon said at the time that Soleimani was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and military personnel in Iraq and throughout the region.”
But “none of Trump’s objectives” were met by Soleimani’s murder, his aide Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, said at a commemorative event. told his supporters.
“Our axis has been made strong by their blessed blood. This is the axis of resistance that we must keep strong and keep,” Nasrallah said.
