Iran escalates threats, vows to shower Israel with 'Shahab' missiles

Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the second-in-command in the Revolutionary Guards, told Iranian state media on Thursday that his troops are capable of firing Shahab-3 missiles on Israel.

Iranian clerics watch the firing of a Shahab-3 missile during a war game in a desert near the city of Qom (photo credit: REUTERS)
Iranian clerics watch the firing of a Shahab-3 missile during a war game in a desert near the city of Qom
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Senior Iranian military officials on Thursday continued to threaten “crushing responses” against Israel for the death of a top Revolutionary Guards officer in an airstrike on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights earlier this week.
The attack also killed senior Hezbollah operatives, among them the son of the late arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh.
Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the second-in-command in the Revolutionary Guards, told Iranian state media on Thursday that his troops are capable of firing Shahab-3 missiles on Israel.
“[Israel] should be waiting for crushing responses,” Salami is quoted as saying.
The Iranian officer said that the Golan attack was an attempt to “change the balance of power in Syria” and help “the takfirist,” a reference to the Islamist elements working to topple the government of Tehran’s key ally, President Bashar Assad.
“[The Golan strike] was the reflection of numerous defeats that both Americans and Israelis have suffered in their current strategies,” he said.
“They have seen IRGC’s reactions before, and [therefore] they are worried, and they will witness destructive thunderbolts in practice,” he said.