Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that “last night we slapped them on the face. When it comes to confrontation, military actions of these kinds are not enough. The corrupt presence of the US should come to an end.”
“For the time being, the Americans have been given a slap, revenge is a different issue,” the Ayatollah continued. “Military moves like this are not enough. The Americans’ corruption-stirring presence should come to an end.”
He also praised the Iranian and Iraqi parliaments for approving a bill that designated the US a terrorist organization. The Iraqi parliament also approved a bill demanding the US army leave Iraq.
Earlier on Wednesday, the IRGC launched heavy ballistic missile attacks on US Ein Al-Assad airbase in Southwestern Iraq near the border with Syria and a US airbase in Erbil. The IRGC claimed that 80 US army personnel had been killed and almost 200 injured in the attacks. The US military has said it is still assessing casualties.
The Pentagon sent out an email statement Tuesday night, saying: “At approximately 5:30 p.m. (EST) on January 7, Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against US military and coalition forces in Iraq. It is clear that these missiles were launched from Iran and targeted at least two Iraqi military bases hosting US military and coalition personnel at Al-Assad and Irbil.”
President Donald Trump, who said he would issue a response to the attack on Wednesday morning, will likely measure his retaliation according to the number of American casualties from the Iranian attack.