TEHRAN — Ali Akbar Velayati, a top advisor to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, has said that the era of U.S. presence in Iraq and Syria has come to an end thanks to Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani’s blood.

The U.S. soldiers will be expelled from the region soon, Velayati said on Saturday, addressing a ceremony commemorating the 40th day after General Soleimani’s martyrdom.

He said the American rulers thought in vain that they could overcome the Resistance Movement by assassinating Soleimani, Mehr reported.

On January 3, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered strikes that martyred General Soleimani, chief of the IRGC Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

After the strikes, the Iraqi parliament voted to expel the U.S. forces from Iraq.

Velayati, a veteran politician, said the funeral procession for Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was unprecedented and exposed the United States’ miscalculations.

Massive funeral procession was held for Soleimani and al-Muhandis in Baghdad, Karbala and Najaf.

Later the body of General Soleimani was transferred to Iran. Millions of mourners took to the streets to pay their last respect to the general first in Ahwaz and then in Mashhad, Tehran, Qom, and finally in Kerman – Soleimani’s hometown.

In the early hours of January 8, the IRGC attacked the U.S. airbase of Ain al-Assad in Anbar province in western Iraq as part of its promised “tough revenge” for the U.S. terror attack.

USA Today reported on Feb. 6 that as it turned out, despite troops huddling in bomb shelters, dozens suffered brain injuries from the explosions when a payload of nearly a ton slammed into their base.

The Pentagon recently announced that 64 U.S. service members suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in the missile attack on the airbase.

MH/PA