A top Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander said on Friday that Tehran seeks to kill former senior US officials, including former President Donald Trump, for their involvement in the 2020 killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.
“God willing, we will be able to kill Trump… [former secretary of state Mike] Pompeo, [former head of US Central Command General Kenneth] McKenzie and those military commanders who gave the order” to kill Soleimani, Amirali Hajizadeh, the head of the IRGC’s aerospace unit, said on state TV.
Hajizadeh said that avenging Soleimani “is still a primary goal” for his forces.
Iran’s threat had followed the US government once again extending protection to Pompeo and his top Iran aide, Brian Hook.
The State Department notified Congress of the extension saying that the threats to Pompeo and Hook remained “serious and credible.” Hook served as the Trump administration’s special envoy for Iran.
This was the tenth time that the US State Department extended protection to Hook since he left office in January 2021, and the seventh time that it extended protection to Pompeo.
Senior Iranian officials, including Revolutionary Guards commanders and leaders, have often pledged “tough revenge” for Soleimani, who was killed in a US strike ordered by Trump moments after having arrived in Baghdad.
In retaliation, Iran attacked the Ain al-Assad air base, which hosts American troops in western Iraq, on January 8, 2020, five days after Soleimani’s killing. No US troops were killed in the attack, but Washington said that dozens of its forces had sustained brain concussions.
On the night of the missile launch at Ain al-Assad base, the Revolutionary Guards’ defenses shot down a Ukrainian civilian plane a few moments after it took off in southern Tehran, killing all 176 people on board, most of them Iranians.
After three days of denial, Hajizadeh declared his forces responsible for shooting down the plane. Iranian officials gave different accounts of the downing of the plane and spoke of “human error.”
The families of the victims are calling for an independent international investigation. Meanwhile, activists and relatives of the victims have so far accused the government in Tehran of concealing military action.
