TEHRAN - Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), in a statement on Friday, announced that the U.S. is “solely responsible” for the consequences of the criminal act of assassinating Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC Quds Force.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council holds U.S. solely responsible for consequences of assassinating commander Soleimani was assassinated in a U.S. air raid on his vehicle in Baghdad’s international airport on Friday morning.   

In the statement, the SNSC underscored, “Undoubtedly, the criminal act by the U.S. was done to take revenge on the great commanders of the campaign against Daesh (ISIS) and other Takfiri terrorists in Iraq and Syria.”

“Tough revenge is waiting for the criminals whose hands are tainted in Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani’s blood,” the statement said, adding, “The revenge will take place in due time and place.”

“The U.S. must realize that the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani has been the largest strategic fault of Washington in the Western Asia region. The U.S. won’t get rid of this miscalculation.”

Soleimani was one of the main figures in the fight against terrorism in the past several years in Iraq and Syria.

Top Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy chief of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), was also martyred in the attack.

Formal funeral processions for Soleimani will take place on Saturday, the PMU said in a statement on Friday.

General Soleimani was at frontline positions in battles against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Iranian officials, including the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, have vowed to take revenge on the U.S. for the terrorist act.

MJ/PA