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Iran's Missile Power, Firm Resolve Displayed by Attack on US Base

TEHRAN (defapress)- Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said that his country's missile power and determination to respond to any aggression was displayed in the strikes on the US base in Iraq, Ein al-Assad.

News ID: 80254

Date: 18 February 2020 - 19:26

"Through this harsh slap, we proved our missile power and firm determination of the commanders in a rapid and mighty response to the Americans," General Hatami said in Tehran on Tuesday.

He added that Iran's missile strikes against Ein al-Assad in response to the US assassination of IRGC Qods Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani shattered the Americans' awe and pride in the eyes of the nations across the world.

Elsewhere, General Hatami said that Iran is now able to produce 90% of its Armed Forces' needs to weapons and equipment.

In relevant remarks earlier today, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said US President Donald Trump and other American officials' recent remarks against Iran and elections indicate that they have been stunned by the overwhelming reactions to their assassination of General Soleimani.

"The Americans have grown passive after martyrdom of our dear martyr (General Soleimani) and the crime they committed at Baghdad airport; that is to say the US president and those around him have really become passive and realized that they have done an uncalculated move," Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing a large number of Iranian people from East Azarbaijan province in Tehran on Tuesday.

He stressed condemnation of the US crime by the world states and even the American people, and said that the Americans planned to eliminate General Soleimani who had deep influence in the region in a move to win control over the region, but their move backfired and the huge rallies held by the Iraqi people in Baghdad and people's moves in Syria and freedom of different regions in Aleppo are opposite to what the Americans were seeking to gain.

"The Americans are passive and part of the prates they have made recently are due to this passivity and they want to compensate for it somehow," Ayatollah Khamenei said.

He referred to tens of US bases built in countries near Iran, and warned in case of any threat "these bases will be of no use neither to the US nor to those who give their money to the US and have pinned hope on Washington because the American arrogance is being smashed".

Lieutenant General Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike on Baghdad International Airport in Iraq on January 3.

The airstrike also martyred Deputy Commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The two were martyred in an American airstrike that targeted their vehicle on the road to the airport.

Five Iranian and five Iraqi militaries were martyred by missiles fired by the US drone at Baghdad International Airport.

On January 8, the IRGC Aerospace Force started heavy ballistic missile attacks on US Ein Al-Assad airbase in Southwestern Iraq near the border with Syria and a US operated airbase in Erbil in retaliation for the US assassination of General Soleimani.

Ein Al-Assad is an airbase with a 4km runway at 188m altitude from sea levels, which is the main and the largest US airbase in Iraq. Early reports said the radar systems and missile defense shields in Ein Al-Assad failed to operate and intercept the Iranian missiles. Unofficial reports said the US army's central radar systems at Ein Al-Assad had been jammed by electronic warfare.

The second IRGC reprisal attack targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan Region in the second leg of "Martyr Soleimani" reprisal operation.

Iraq said the attacks had not taken any toll from its army men stationed at these two bases. The US army had blocked entrance into Ein Al-Assad to everyone, including the Iraqi army.

It was the first direct attack on the US army ever since world war two.

The IRGC officials said none of the missiles had been intercepted.

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