Pentagon Says ‘Aware’ of Iranian Leader’s Video Depicting Trump Assassination

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Pentagon is aware of an animated video posted to the website of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei depicting the assassination of former US President Donald Trump, Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby said during an interview with Fox News.

"We’ve just recently been made aware of it and I think we’re looking at that right now. This is a piece of the continued malign activities that Iran continues to perpetrate in the region and the threats that they continue to pose to our national security interests" Kirby said on Thursday.

The Department of Defense will stay focused on the Iranian threat and make sure they have the capability to protect US forces in the Middle East amid continued attacks by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, Kirby added.

The video - part of a contest to mark the January 3, 2020 killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani by a US drone strike - shows an Iranian agent remotely controlling a combat robot which infiltrates Trump's residence in Florida, where the former US president is playing golf with other high-ranking officials. The video displays the message "Soleimani’s murderer and the one who gave the order will pay the price," before launching the simulated strike on Trump.

Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force, was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020. On Saturday, Tehran imposed new sanctions against 51 US citizens over their involvement in the assassination, including Head of the United States Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and former National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien.