Iran’s Supreme Leader vows: ‘Severe revenge awaits’ for assassination of top general

Iran swore revenge for the U.S. targeted killing.

By World Israel News Staff

“Severe revenge awaits the criminals who bloodied their foul hands with his blood and other martyrs in last night’s incident,” Supreme Leader  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday morning after the U.S. killed Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani.

“Martyrdom was the reward for his ceaseless efforts all these years,” Khamenei also tweeted about Khamenei.

President Hasan Rouhani said, “There is no doubt that the great nation of Iran and the other free nations of the region will take revenge for this gruesome crime from criminal America.”

President Donald Trump ordered the airstrike on Soleimani, which was carried out around midnight at Baghdad’s international airport. The attack that threatens to dramatically ratchet up tensions in the region.

The Defense Department said it killed Soleimani because he “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.”

It also accused Soleimani of approving the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad earlier this week.

Also killed in the drone strike was the founder of the Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

On Dec. 29, the U.S. carried out a strike on the Iranian-backed Iraqi militia, killing 25 of its fighters and wounded dozens.

The militia vowed revenge and was behind the protest at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq on Tuesday in which thousands protested and broke through the Embassy’s main reception area, setting it on fire.

In response, the U.S. ordered roughly 750 paratroopers from the Immediate Response Force (IRF) of the 82^nd Airborne Division to the Middle East.

Trump vowed that the situation “will not be a Benghazi,” referring to the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya which resulted in the deaths of Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith.

The attack also led to the killing of CIA contractors Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty and the wounding of 10 others.