Iran launches attacks against ‘terror bases’
Missiles hit sites in Iraq, Syria in defense of security amid escalation of hostilities
TEHERAN/BAGHDAD — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, said it has launched barrages of ballistic missiles against the bases of “terrorists” and Israel’s intelligence service Mossad in Syria and Iraq’s Kurdistan region respectively in response to recent anti-Iran “terror” attacks.
Iran said on Tuesday it had launched missiles at targets in the two countries in defense of its sovereignty and security, and counter terrorism.
The strikes come amid concerns over the escalation of the conflict that has spread through the Middle East since the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas began on Oct 7, with Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen also entering the fray.
The IRGC announced the attacks in three statements published on Sepah News early on Tuesday, describing the operations, which it said were carried out at midnight, as responses to recent “terrorist attacks” in the southeastern Iranian provinces of Kerman, and Sistan-Baluchestan as well as Israel’s assassinations of Iranian and resistance commanders.
“In response to the recent atrocities of the Zionist regime, causing the killing of commanders of the Guards and the Axis of Resistance … one of the main Mossad espionage headquarters in Iraq’s Kurdistan region was destroyed with ballistic missiles,” the IRGC said in a statement. The Axis of Resistance refers to the groups that have raised concerns over violence spreading from the conflict in Gaza.
Israeli government officials did not immediately comment, Reuters reported.
Iran had vowed revenge for the killing of three members of the Guards in Syria last month, including a senior IRGC commander, who had served as military advisers there.
Preliminary reports showed the bombardment killed four civilians and wounded six in Erbil, the Kurdistan Region Security Council said in a statement.
The statement also called on the federal government and the international community not to remain silent about such attacks.
Since the Oct 7 attack by Hamas fighters on Israel and the ensuing Israeli bombing campaigns in Gaza, more than 130 fighters of Hezbollah have been killed in hostilities.
In addition to the strikes northeast of Kurdistan’s capital Erbil in a residential area near the US consulate, the Guards said they “fired a number of ballistic missiles in Syria and destroyed the perpetrators of terrorist operations” in Iran, including the Islamic State.
“We assure our nation that the Guards’ offensive operations will continue until avenging the last drop of martyrs’ blood,” the Guards’ statement said.
Situation assessment
“We tracked the missiles which impacted northern Iraq and northern Syria,” Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement. “We will continue to assess the situation.”
On Jan 3, two “suicide terrorists” detonated two bombs near the tomb of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Kerman, which resulted in more than 90 deaths and 280 injuries. The Islamic State terrorist group on Jan 4 claimed responsibility for the bombings.
On Tuesday, Iraq summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires in Baghdad to protest against the attacks in Kurdistan, the Iraqi state news agency reported.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said Teheran respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries but at the same time was using its “legitimate and legal right to deter national security threats”.
Meanwhile, three armed drones were shot down on Tuesday near a military base hosting US and other international troops in northern Iraq, the Iraqi regional counterterrorism service reported.
A statement from the service in the Kurdistan region did not say if there were any casualties or damage to infrastructure due to the attack, which happened at the Erbil International Airport.