Executed general’s body arrives back in Iran as Donald Trump warns US will hit 52 targets if assets attacked
DONALD Trump has told Iran he will unleash his new two trillion dollar arsenal on 52 targets “very fast and very hard” if they dare to strike back at the US.
His blistering warning came hours after Tehran pinpointed 35 “key US targets” for attack in response to its top general being wiped out in a Pentagon drone strike.
Hours later, rockets were fired near the US Embassy in Baghdad and at an airbase housing American troops.
The two attacks came just before chanting mourners greeted the body of General Qasem Soleimani when it landed back in his home country.
The military firebrand’s casket was carried off a plane that had touched down in the Islamic Republic’s capital after making the short flight from Iraq.
Video showed it wrapped in an Iranian flag being unloaded from a plane as a military band plays and the crowd angrily chanted ‘death to America’.
RETALIATION FEARS
A ceremony will later be held for him at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad – believed to be the holiest place in Iran.
Senior US advisers now fear a retaliation attack from Iran could be seen “within weeks” either at home or abroad.
And Trump has now issued a furious warning against Iran and vowed to attack 52 targets if it takes revenge for the airstrike on Soleimani.
He tweeted: “Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American and badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently hundreds of Iranian protesters.
“He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years.
“Let this serve as a warning that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago).
“Some at a very high level and important to Iran and the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, will be hit very fast and very hard. The USA wants no more threats.”
However, Iran’s army chief said Washington lacked the guts to go to war with his forces.
TWITTER BLAST
“I doubt they have the courage to initiate”, said Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi.
And the country’s media minister compared the US president to Hitler.
“Like ISIS, Like Hitler, Like Genghis! They all hate cultures. Trump is a terrorist in a suit. He will learn history very soon that NOBODY can defeat ‘the Great Iranian Nation & Culture’,” tweeted Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi
Trump later blasted: “The United States just spent Two Trillion Dollars on Military Equipment. We are the biggest and by far the BEST in the World!
“If Iran attacks an American Base, or any American, we will be sending some of that brand new beautiful equipment their way…and without hesitation!”
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has also now told Iraqi soldiers to leave US bases.
The Islamic political and militant group also warned Iraqi soldiers to stay at least 1,000 meters away from American military bases from Sunday onwards.
There are not believed to be any injuries after the rockets fell at the embassy compound – in the Iraqi capital’s green zone – and near Iraq’s Balad airbase.
Missiles also rained down on Baghdad’s Jadriya neighbourhood – wounding five people, police said.
Yesterday Iran unfurled a red flag as a clear warning it is ready to fulfil its worrying pledge to strike back at America and Donald Trump.
Chillingly written across the “war flag” were the words: “Those who want to avenge the blood of Hussein”.
Red flags in Shiite tradition symbolise both blood spilled unjustly and serve as a call to avenge a person who is slain.
It was hoisted above the important Jamkaran Mosque which is on the outskirts of the holy city of Qom, about 100 miles south of Tehran.
It took to the skies as General Qasem Soleimani’s daughter pleaded with the Iranian president to strike back over her father’s death.
“Who is going to avenge my father’s blood,” she was reported as asking Hassan Rouhani during his visit to the family’s Tehran home.
Mr Rouhani replied: “We will avenge, all of us will avenge his blood. Don’t you worry.”
Earlier tens of thousands of mourners chanting ‘death to America’ mobbed a funeral procession for the powerful general and other militia killed in the US airstrike later branded an ‘act of war’ by Tehran.
Amir Hatami, Iran’s defence minister, has threatened the US with “crushing revenge” for Gen Soleimani’s “unjust assassination”.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said “severe revenge awaits the criminals” behind the attack.
The news came as thousands of Brit holidaymakers in Turkey and Dubai were warned to be “vigilant” by the Foreign Office, who updated their advice for travel across the Middle East.
