TEHRAN, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- A top advisor to Iran's supreme leader said the U.S. forces should leave Iraq and Syria, Tehran Times daily reported Sunday.

The era of U.S. presence in Iraq and Syria has come to an end, Ali Akbar Velayati was quoted as saying at the ceremony commemorating the assassinated senior Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.

The U.S. soldiers will be expelled from the region "soon," he added.

The U.S. rulers thought in vain that they could overcome the resistance in the region by assassinating Soleimani, the Iranian official noted.

Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, was killed in a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad International Airport last month.