Iran responds to Islamic State threatening video
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Mohsen Rezai, secretary of Iranian Expediency Council Secretary, an influential consultative body appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader, said the Islamic State will be penalized in case it carried out minimal threat against Iran, Shafaq News reported on Thursday.
In response to a recent video released by IS, Rezai said, “You are escaping everywhere. In case you took any step against Iran or its interests abroad, we will follow you at any place in the world. We will punish you.”
“The curse that will befall you will be more than your defeat in Mosul and Aleppo. You were not punished because of presence of civilians and you escaped,” he added.
On Wednesday, IS released a video threatening Iran in Farsi language declaring formation of ‘Al-Farsi’ battalion which includes Iranian fighters in east of Iraq, near the Iranian borders.
Titled “Persia: the Past and the Present,” the video showed the members of the battalion while being trained in Diyala province, located eastern Iraq. It also showed photos of Iran’s spiritual leader Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali al-Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and Iranian Commander Qassem Soleimani while the being shot with guns.
In a threatening message to Tehran, the video featured four of the militants while beheading four Iraqis, including a military commander Badr Brigades, a prominent Shia paramilitary group fighting IS alongside the Iraqi government troops.
Three fighters identified with their nom de guerre as Abu Mujahid al-Balushi, Abu Saad al-Ahwazi, Abul Farouq al-Farisi urged the Iranian people during the video to stage an uprising against its rules.
At the end, the video tackled its fights against Iranian troops in Baquba, Diyala and other regions, showing the losses of Iran, in response to talks that the group ruled Iran out of its targets.
Iran has been a generous backer of the Shia-led Iraqi and Syrian governments, as well as Shia militias fighting IS in both countries since the Sunni extremist group emerged in 2014 to proclaim an “Islamic Caliphate”.