Iran's Revolutionary Guard bombards northern Iraq and Syria with ballistic missiles: four civilians killed

Revolutionary Guard Iran He announced that he had attacked this morning Ballistic Missiles Targets linked to the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS) and “spies of the Zionist regime (Israel)” Iraq And SyriaIt caused At least four civilians were killed.

The attacks take place in a delicate regional context, in the framework of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, which has fueled hostilities between Yemen and America's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said: Washington “strongly condemns” and opposes “Iran's reckless missile attacks that undermine the stability of Iraq”.

Official Iranian press agency IRNA He noted that the missiles were directed against a “spy headquarters” and a “bunch of anti-Iranian terrorist groups”. ErbilThe capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

A statement by the Revolutionary Guards indicated that the attacks were “in response to recent crimes against the Islamic Republic” and that they carried them out. A target for “the headquarters of anti-Iranian spies and other terrorist groups in parts of the region.”

“Targets destroyed,” the note added.

The Iraqi Kurdistan Security Council said Tehran's move He “killed four civilians and wounded six.”

According to the agency IRNAThe spy headquarters belongs to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad He used it “as a hub to enhance intelligence operations and plan terrorist activities in the region.”

Iraq's foreign ministry condemned the shooting, calling it “an attack against Iraq's sovereignty and the security of its people”.

Iraqi authorities will “take all necessary legal action” following the attacks. “Complaint to the UN Security Council”According to the ministry statement.

The Revolutionary Guard hit with ballistic missiles “commandos and elements related to the recent terrorist attacks where they meet, especially [grupo yihadista] “Islamic State” in Syria, they said on the Seba information website.

They added that these actions were “in response to recent crimes by terrorist groups that unjustly sacrificed a group of our dear comrades in Kerman and Rasq.”

“Iran has a legitimate right to deal with threats to the country's national security,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said. Further. “Operations (Bomb Attacks) They are part of Tehran's just punishment for those who acted against the country's security” said the diplomat, referring to the Kerman attack that claimed 94 lives this month and was claimed by ISIS.

Supreme Leader of Iran Ali KhameneiCalls were made last week to “crush” those “hidden” responsible for the attack, in an apparent reference to the US and Israel.

On January 3, suicide bombers detonated bombs near the tomb in the southern city of Kerman of General Qassem Soleimani, who was in charge of most of Iran's military operations in the Middle East and was assassinated by the United States in Iraq on January 3, 2020.

On January 3, an attack by ISIS killed around 90 people and injured many others.

Iran's intelligence ministry said one of the suicide bombers was a Tajik national, but the identity of the other was unknown.

In December, at least 11 Iranian police officers were killed in an attack by jihadists on Rask police station in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.

(With information from AFP and EFE)