A spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday attempted to take credit for the October 7 atrocities by describing them as retaliation for the U.S. killing of IRGC terrorist mastermind Qasem Soleimani in 2020.
The actual perpetrators of the barbaric attacks, Hamas, quickly denounced Iran’s effort to steal its rape-and-murder thunder.
“Al-Aqsa Flood was one of the acts of revenge for the assassination of General Soleimani by the U.S. and the Zionists. Certainly, these acts of revenge will continue in different times and places,” IRGC spokesman Ramezan Sharif told reporters on Wednesday.
“Al-Aqsa Flood” is the name given by Hamas and its supporters to the horrific terrorist attack on October 7.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Horror of the Hamas Terror Attack on Civilians at Kibbutz Be’eri in Israel
Soleimani was liquidated in a U.S. airstrike at the airport in Baghdad, Iraq, in January 2020 while he was coordinating attacks on U.S. positions by Shiite militia groups loyal to Iran.
The Iranian regime declared Soleimani a holy “martyr,” organized compulsory demonstrations to worship him as a national hero, and vowed to take revenge against the United States for his death.
Iranians lift national flags during a ceremony in Tehran on January 3, 2022, commemorating the second anniversary of the killing in Iraq of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. (ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)
When Iranians struggle to rise against the theocracy, they frequently express their defiance by disrespecting Soleimani’s memory, calling him a murderer, or burning him in effigy. For example, Iranians protesting the murder of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman killed by the “morality police” for allegedly wearing her compulsory headscarf incorrectly, tore down Soleimani’s photo and set it on fire in his hometown of Kerman in September 2022.
Hamas quickly and curtly dismissed Sharif’s comments on Wednesday, insisting the October 7 atrocities were solely and entirely committed “in response to the presence of the occupation and its continued aggression against our people and our sanctities.”
Iranian state media backpedaled later that day, claiming Sharif’s claim of responsibility was “misunderstood” and confirming the October 7 atrocities were “an entirely Palestinian operation.”
In his remarks on Wednesday, Sharif also vowed revenge for the death of another IRGC official named Razi Mousavi, an old friend of Soleimani’s and “one of the most experienced advisers” of the Quds Force, which Soleimani led for twenty years.
Sharif promised “harsh revenge” through a “combination” of direct attacks on Israel and operations carried out by its proxy terrorist forces. He claimed Israel assassinated Mousavi in an act of desperation prompted by “the pressure of the relentless attacks of the resistance front in Gaza.”
The IRGC said Mousavi was killed by an Israeli airstrike on Monday while he was “providing logistical support to the axis of resistance in Syria” — in other words, coordinating terrorist attacks by Iranian proxy forces in Syria.
Iranian Ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari told a slightly different tale, claiming Mousavi was merely a peaceful “diplomat” posted to the Iranian embassy in Damascus who was killed by Israeli missiles while returning home from work.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.