Alwaght- Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has reiterated the need for the country to improve its missile defense capability.
“Keep working on the missile program as far as you can. Look how sensitive the enemy is about [the country’s] missiles, so you should know that your work is highly important,” the Leader said in a meeting with a number of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commanders last month, hours after the IRGC hit ISIS terrorist group positions in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province.
In remarks published for the first time on Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei praised the IRGC for its strike against ISIS in Syria. “The enemy must be slapped in the face,” the Leader added.
During the meeting, the commanders briefed the Leader on the strike, saying the IRGC had only hit the positions of the terrorists and that no civilians were targeted in the operation.
On June 18, IRGC fired medium-range ground-to-ground Zolfaqar ballistic missiles into ISIS bases in Syria’s Deir Ezzor in retaliation for twin terrorist attacks in the Iranian capital Tehran, which killed 18 people and injured over 50 others.
During the operation codenamed “Laylat al-Qadr”, the IRGC fired six mid-range ballistic missiles at various targets within a range of 650 to 700 kilometers, including the headquarters, ammunition and logistic depots of the terrorists. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC's Aerospace Force said, "The missiles were fired from Iran and they passed through Iraq's airspace and hit Syria and the online footages of the strikes in Deir Ezzor were sent to us in Iran by the drones which were flying over Syria."
