Iran’s Revolutionary Guards attacked ‘terrorist’ targets in Syria and Iraq’s Kurdistan on Monday, killing four people and wounding six others, and drawing United States criticism for recklessness and destabilization concerns.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they launched missile attacks on multiple ‘terrorist’ targets in Syria and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region just before midnight local time on Monday.
The attacks destroyed “a spy headquarters” and a “gathering of anti-Iranian terrorist groups” in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported, quoting a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Four people were killed and six others wounded in the attack, according to Iraq’s Kurdistan security council.
The prominent businessman Peshraw Dizayee was among several civilians who were killed, the Kurdistan Democratic Party said.
The United States on Monday condemned the attacks as “reckless”, warning they undermine stability.
“We oppose Iran’s reckless missile strikes, which undermine Iraq’s stability,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
Earlier, a White House spokesperson said no US personnel or facilities were targeted.
The IRGC also hit targets in Syria with ballistic missiles, including the “gathering places of commanders and main elements related to recent terrorist operations, particularly the Islamic State group”, their Sepah News service reported.
It added that the strike on Syria was in response to recent attacks by terrorist groups that killed Iranians in the southern cities of Kerman and Rask.
Explosions were heard in Aleppo and its countryside, where “at least 4 missiles that came from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea” fell, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.
On January 3, suicide bombers struck crowds gathered near the tomb of the revered IRGC general Qasem Soleimani in Kerman, killing around 90 people. The attack was later claimed by IS.
In December, at least 11 Iranian police officers were killed in an attack on a police station in Rask. The jihadist group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), which was formed in 2012 and is blacklisted by Iran as a “terrorist” group, claimed responsibility.
Israeli ‘spy operations’
The IRGC also said it had struck alleged Israeli “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, IRNA reported.
It said the headquarters had served as “the center for developing espionage operations and planning terrorist actions in the region,” naming Israel’s Mossad spy organization.
The Guards said the strike was in response to recent attacks on Iran and the “axis of resistance” of Iran-aligned groups, which have raised concerns about violence spreading from Israel’s war in Gaza.
Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP
