Addressing a meeting of senior resistance commanders, Brigadier General Esmail Qa’ani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), urged the Americans “not to waste their time looking for a culprit or leveling accusations against others” over what happened to the navy ship off San Diego.
“This is a fire they (Americans) have lit themselves,” he said.
He was reacting to the fire that broke out at Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship and light aircraft carrier, as it was anchored at the US Naval base in San Diego on Sunday.
The blaze was accompanied by at least one large explosion. The US Navy said the ship had been docked for scheduled maintenance between deployments.
Amid indications that the ship could continue burning for days, hundreds of American firefighters have been busy battling the blaze for two consecutive days. Scores of American sailors and civilians have been injured.
“This incident is a response to your crimes, which has come about at the hands of your own elements,” Qa’ani said. “God uses your own hands to punish you.”
What is unfolding in the US today, especially the warship incident “is the [direct] result of the US administration’s [own] action, behavior, and atrocities,” the general again noted.
“They have been afflicted with divine wrath and retribution because they tried to skew the divine word and resorted to oppression,” he added.
Tough days ahead for US, Israel
Qa’ani — who was assigned to the Quds Force after the US assassinated his predecessor Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad in early January — said both the United States and its regional ally Israel were to wade into serious hardship and adversity.
“You are still experiencing your halcyon days. You have very tough days and occurrences ahead of you,” he noted.
General Soleimani’s successor noted that the US military has turned into a “tired and decrepit” force, and its equipment has degraded into “scrap iron.”
Washington has to accept its dire conditions and stop oppressing the humanity and its own people, he said.