“The United States just spent Two Trillion Dollars on Military Equipment. We are the biggest and by far the BEST in the World!” US President Donald Trump boasted in response to a threat by the Iranian government to revenge for the killing of its military commander.
“If Iran attacks an American Base or any American, we will be sending some of that brand new beautiful equipment their way…and without hesitation!” Trump in a Twitter on Sunday warned Iranian President Hassan Rouhani owing to his statement on Saturday that the United States committed a “grave mistake” in killing Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.
Rouhani’s remarks came on the same day mourners in neighboring Iraq had chanted “Death to America” at a funeral procession for Soleimani and an Iraqi militia leader who died with him in a US airstrike in Iraq early Friday.
“The Americans did not understand what grave mistake they committed,” Rouhani said while visiting the house of Soleimani’s family in Tehran, according to a statement his office released.
Trump further tweeted “These media posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner. Such legal notice is not required, but is given nevertheless!
“Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently of Iranian protesters.”
According to him, “He was already attacking our Embassy and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but a problem for many years. Let this serves as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!”
A report monitored from CNN says “The strike killed Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces. At least six people were killed in the strike, an Iraqi security source told CNN on condition of anonymity.”
Maj. Gen. Ismail Qaani, who served for years alongside Soleimani, has been appointed his replacement.
It marks a major escalation in regional tensions that have pitted Tehran against Washington and its allies in the Middle East.
Trump on Friday said he ordered the death of Soleimani, one of Iran’s most powerful men, to stop a war, not start one, as tensions between the two nations were already escalating.
Trump said Soleimani was plotting “imminent and sinister attacks” on Americans.
The Pentagon blamed Soleimani and Iran-backed Iraqi militias for recent assaults on coalition bases in Iraq, including a December 27 strike that killed an American civilian contractor and wounded the several US and Iraqi military personnel.
After retaliatory US airstrikes against the militias last month, hundreds of protesters stormed the US Embassy compound in Baghdad on December 31, an attack the US blamed on Soleimani.
Soleimani was the head of Quds Force, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unit in charge of foreign operations, and he became the architect of Tehran’s proxy conflicts in the Middle East. The Pentagon blamed Soleimani for hundreds of deaths of Americans and their allies over the years.
Rockets hit parts of Baghdad on Saturday, including the parade grounds in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone and the Al-Jadriya area just south of the Green Zone, injuring no one, the Iraqi army said. The Green Zone contains Parliament, ministries and foreign embassies.
