Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned that “severe revenge” awaits the killers of Qassem Soleimani after a US airstrike killed the Iranian top general in Baghdad late on Thursday.
Khamenei also vowed that the “road of jihad and resistance” will continue with stronger efforts after Soleimani’s death.
“Severe revenge awaits the criminals whose dirty hands were tainted with his blood and the blood of all the martyrs of last night’s incident,” said Khamenei, in a statement posted on his Farsi and Arabic Twitter accounts, early on Friday.
“The martyr, Soleimani, was an international resistance figure, and all those who loved him are calling for revenge for his blood.”
He also announced three days of mourning for Soleimani.
Iraq’s militia leader turned populist politician Moqtada al-Sadr reactivated his Mahdi Army on Friday following the US strike.
Taking to Twitter, Sadr ordered “fighters, particularly those from the Mahdi Army, to be ready” following the strike, reactivating the anti-American force nearly a decade after he dissolved it.
