Iran not to rest until eradication of all terrorists: General Qassem Soleimani

In this September 18, 2016 photo released by an official website of the office of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Major General Qassem Soleimani, center, attends a meeting with the Leader in Tehran. (Via AP)

General Qassem Soleimani says Iranian forces will not rest until they have taken out every last terrorist from the face of the Muslim world after Daesh reportedly beheaded an Iranian military adviser in Syria. 

The general, who commands the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), made the pledge in a statement carried by Tasnim News Agency on Thursday.

Mohsen Hojaji, who was a member of the Iranian advisory support team in Syria, was reportedly taken hostage by the Takfiri group near the Iraqi border on Monday and beheaded two days later.

This photo released by Daesh purportedly shows Iranian military adviser Mohsen Hojaji (front) taken hostage by the Takfiri terrorists near the Iraqi border in Syria.

General Soleimani said the “horrific, inhumane crime” came in the wake of successive blows dealt on several fronts to Takfiri-Wahhabi terror groups, which are tied to global arrogance.

“The atrocity does not fall within any Islamic, or even humanitarian, principle or law,” the statement said.

Such acts, the general said, would further strengthen the Iranian servicemen’s resolve in pursuit of their cause “to purge every inch of the Muslim territories of their (the terrorists’) evil presence.”

Iranian servicemen “will avenge this bestial act with a firm decision, namely [to realize] the very eradication of the evil growth of Wahhabism and terrorism from the face of the Muslim world.”

Wahhabism is the radical ideology informing the acts of terrorism perpetrated by Daesh and its fellow Takfiri outfits.

At Iraq and Syria’s request, the Islamic Republic has been providing the advisory assistance to the respective countries’ armies in their fight against Takfiri terrorists.

On June 7, Daesh gunmen mounted assaults on Iran’s Parliament and the Mausoleum of late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini, leaving 18 people dead and over 50 others wounded.

The IRGC responded with a missile strike, which pummeled Daesh positions in Syria’s eastern Dayr al-Zawr Province, killing more than 170 Takfiri elements and inflicting heavy damage to their weaponry and communication systems.

The group, which is by many accounts on its last legs in Iraq and Syria, is now seeking to establish footholds in countries beyond the Middle East, including Afghanistan.

On Sunday, Daesh and Taliban militants struck Mirza Olang, a Shia-populated village in the northern Afghan province of Sar-e Pol, in a rare concerted attack, killing at least 60 men, women and children. 

Local officials say the killing marked one of the most hideous atrocities committed against civilians in recent years. Takfiri terrorists reportedly ambushed the fleeing residents in a ravine and rounded them up before beheading some of them and hurling some others from rocks to their deaths.

Some unconfirmed reports put the death toll as high as 120.    

On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council released a report, saying Daesh continued to “motivate and enable” global attacks and funnel funds to supporters despite the defeats it has suffered Syria and Iraq.

The terror group would transfer the funds overseas in small amounts, which had made it hard to detect, the report said.

Daesh’s command and control structure “has not broken down completely,” and remains “a significant military threat,” it said and warned about the outfit’s efforts to establish a toehold in Southeast Asia, most notably the Philippines.