General Hossein Salami, the chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has issued a threat to target anyone who had had a role in the death of Qassem Soleimani.

Soleimani had been the IRGC former chief. He was killed by a US drone strike in Iraq in January at an airport in Baghdad. Iran, in retaliation had launched a ballistic missile attack targeting US soldiers in Iraq.

Al Arabiya reports that Salami said, in a comment addressing US President Donald Trump, that Iran’s revenge was ‘serious and real’. Trump had earlier this week warned that Washington would respond harshly to any Iranian attempts to take revenge for the death of Soleimani. He tweeted: if they hit us in any way, any form, written instructions already done we’re going to hit them 1000 times harder. His warning came in response to a report that alleged that Iran was plotting to assassinate the US ambassador to South Africa in retaliation for Soleimani’s killing.

Salami, meanwhile, dismissed the report alleging a plot to assassinate Ambassador Lana Marks, saying, “Do you think we hit a female ambassador in return to our martyred brother?” He added, “We will hit those who had direct and indirect roles.”

Umm Muhammed Umar