Iranian general: US Mideast bases ‘easy targets’ for our missiles

“Those bases are soft targets for Iran and will be hit if the enemy makes a wrong move,” IRGC Brigadier General Hajizadeh threatened.

By Jack Gold, World Israel News

A senior Iranian general threatened to attack U.S. bases and aircraft carriers in the Middle East and Afghanistan, saying they were an easy target for Tehran’s missiles.

Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, stated on Wednesday that the IRGC has been focused on improving its missiles’ precision for the past decade, acting on the orders of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Tasnim News reported.

The IRGC paramilitary force is in charge of the country’s missile program.

Hajizadeh said that all U.S. military bases in the region are within the range of Iran’s missiles, specifically naming the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and the Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), situated some 300 kilometers away from Iran, and the Kandahar base in Afghanistan, which is only kilometers away from Iran.

The U.S. has several large bases in Arab countries in the region, including the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command in Qatar, American bases in the UAE and the U.S. Navy’s 5^th Fleet in Bahrain.

“Those bases are soft targets for Iran and will be hit if the enemy makes a wrong move,” Hajizadeh warned, according to Tasnim News.

‘US aircraft carriers are like shooting targets’

He also pointed to Iran’s missile capabilities at sea, saying the IRGC has acquired naval missiles with a range of 700 kilometers that could be used over the Sea of Oman.

“U.S. aircraft carriers are like shooting targets for us,” Hajizadeh said mockingly.

Iran’s current missiles have a range of at least 2,000 kilometers, according to statements made by IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari in November 2017.

A month earlier, Jafari threatened U.S. bases in the region saying they should be moved farther from Iran’s borders if it imposes new sanctions against Tehran.

Describing the country’s missile capabilities as an asset, he warned Iran’s “enemies” of the “high costs of infuriating the Iranian nation.”

The U.S. has since imposed new sanctions on Iran, while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned that Washington would respond swiftly and powerfully to any Iranian attack on US interests.

Iran claims its military development is for defense purposes only. However, many of these weapons were given to the Hezbollah terror organization and used against Israel’s civilian population during the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to use its missiles against Israel.