The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Qods Force, Esmail Ghaani once again has threatened American officials with revenge for the killing of his predecessor Qasem Soleimani, saying the response might come “from within your house”.

In a speech on Friday, January 1 in a ceremony to mark the first anniversary of Soleimani’s death, Ghaani said, “everywhere in the world a man might be found” who is ready “to punish those” responsible.

Soleimani was killed in a targeted US air attack in the early hours of January 3, 2020 as he arrived at Baghdad airport and his motorcade pulled away. As commander of the Qods (Quds) Force, he was Iran’s main architect of building a network of state and non-state allies and proxies in the region to expand the Islamic Republic’s influence.

Iran has repeatedly vowed to take revenge from the specific people responsible for making the decision and carrying it out. That would include President Donald Trump who took the responsibility for making the decision and other high-level US officials.

Ghaani said, “They have to know that even from within their house there might be people willing to respond to this crime.” The threat is a direct reference to possible acts of terror in the United States.

Ghaani on Wednesday [December 30] had made a similar threat in a speech in the Iranian parliament, saying those responsible for Soleimani’s killing “should learn how to live secretly like Salman Rushdie.”

In 1989 Iran’s leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, calling for the death of British-Indian author Salman Rushdie for blasphemy in his 1988 book, The Satanic Verses. Rushdie lived in secrecy and under protection for many years, and his public appearances remain limited.

Tensions have been high in recent days since a rocket attack by Iran’s militia proxies on the US embassy in Baghdad on December 20, followed by Trump’s stern warning to Iran against harming any Americans.

The US has also sent a guided-missile submarine into the Persian Gulf and flown B-52 heavy bombers over the region as a warning to Iran not to engage in any act of revenge during the anniversary of Soleimani’s death. But on Thursday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani repeated the threat of revenge, with Iranian media full of stories about the dead general, portraying him as a hero of Iran and the Islamic world.