BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, Jan. 8-- Iran said Wednesday it has launched missile attack on the U.S. military base of al-Asad in Iraq's Anbar province following the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani. "Tens of surface-to-surface missiles" were fired at the strategic airbase," said Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in a statement carried by Iranian state TV. The IRGC attack comes after Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of the IRGC, was killed in a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad International Airport on Friday. In the statement, the IRGC called for a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, saying that it would not differentiate between the U.S. and Israel in retaliating the assassination of the Iranian national "hero." "We in no way consider the Zionist regime (of Israel) to be separated from the criminal U.S. regime in these crimes," read the IRGC statement. "We warn U.S. allies providing bases for the (American) terrorist army ... that any country serving as the origin of bellicose and aggressive attacks in any form against the Islamic Republic of Iran will be targeted," it said. The IRGC warned the United States that "any new wicked act or more moves and aggressions (against Iran) will bring about more painful and crushing responses." The IRGC further urged the American people to call for the return of U.S. forces from the region in order to prevent further losses and not to allow Washington put the lives of American troops at risk any more. |