Hezbollah deputy: Killing Soleimani was ‘a very stupid act’

The deputy leader of Lebanon’s terrorist Hezbollah group said the United States carried out a “very stupid act” by killing Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani in an airstrike in Iraq.

Sheikh Naim Qassem made his comments on Sunday after paying a visit to the Iranian embassy in Beirut where he paid condolences. He said the attack would make Tehran and its allies stronger.

Qassem told reporters “now we have more responsibilities,” adding that the United States will discover that “its calculations” were wrong.

Hezbollah is a close ally of Iran’s and considered part of a regional Iranian-backed alliance of proxy militias.

On Friday, Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah, mourned Iran’s Quds Force leader Soleimani as a “master of resistance.”

“To continue on General Soleimani’s path, we’ll raise his flag in all battlefields,” the Hezbollah-linked Al-Manar website quoted Nasrallah as saying.

“Meting out the appropriate punishment to these criminal assassins… will be the responsibility and task of all resistance fighters worldwide,” he said.

Soleimani had close ties with Hezbollah and was heavily involved in its operations. In a rare interview late last year, Soleimani claimed he and Nasrallah escaped an Israeli assassination attempt when Israeli aircraft targeted them in Beirut during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

Soleimani has for years been seen as the architect of much of Iran’s malign activities in the Middle East, including attempts to place a foothold in Syria and rocket attacks on Israel, making him one of Israel and the US’s most sought-after targets.

Soleimani had long stayed in the shadows while directing the Quds Force. But he rose to prominence by advising forces fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and in Syria on behalf of embattled dictator Bashar Assad.

Early Friday, a volley of missiles hit Baghdad’s international airport, striking a convoy belonging to the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iraqi paramilitary force with close ties to Iran. Just a few hours later, the Revolutionary Guard Corps announced Soleimani “was martyred in an attack by America on Baghdad airport this morning.”