FNA- Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh underlined that the last month missile strikes against the ISIL bases in Syria also took revenge for the terrorist group's burning of a Jordanian pilot alive in 2015.
"We fired 6 missiles within 12 minutes during the missile operations but the news of their firing was released in the social media while two missiles were still on the launcher. When we pursued the issue, we understood that the people who were around the place where the missiles were fired had taken footages of the early launch moments and released them," General Hajizadeh said, addressing a ceremony in Tehran on Tuesday.
The IRGC launched 6 missile strikes at ISIL centers in Syria's Deir Ezzur in retaliation for the June 7 twin ISIL terrorist attacks in Tehran which killed 18 people, it said in a statement issued on June 18, adding that the mid-range ballistic missiles were fired from bases in Western Iran and flew through Iraq's airspace before hitting the targets in Syria and killing tens of ISIL militants and their commanders.
"I was in the operations room when the first missile hit the target and I watched in the monitor when the first missile hit the target but suddenly, we saw tall flames from three points around the target one missile was fired and hit the target precisely, and beneath the target, the ISIL had an underground base which was burning in fire," he added.
Noting that Iran was not aware of the existence of the ISIL underground base beneath the target, General Hajizadeh said, "When the second missile hit the target, an oil tanker was also damaged and the fuel inside it poured into a tunnel and a big fire started. I thought how such a big fire was created and concluded that God had decided to take the revenge for the Jordanian pilot who was burned alive by the ISIL in addition to the blood of the martyrs who were killed in the terrorist attacks in Tehran."
The ISIL terrorists released a video in 2015 that showed the Jordanian pilot they had been holding hostage being burned alive.
Moaz al-Kasaesbeh, a pilot in the Jordanian air force, was captured by ISIL on December 24, 2014.
Known social media feeds of ISIL members also posted photographs of the event.
In it, Lt Kasaesbeh was standing in a cage, with a line of armed and masked terrorists looking on.
A trail of flames was then lit around him, and eventually he was burned too.
Throughout, he stood erect and apparently defiant.