Tension in the Middle East has increased a little more after Iran attacked with missiles targets of the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) and “spies of the Zionist regime (Israel)” in Syria and Iraq, to “avenge” the victims of the Kerman attack, on January 3.
The Revolutionary Guard began the attacks at dawn, shortly after midnight, and launched a total of 24 “Kheibar Shekan” (Castle Destroyer) missiles against “anti-Iranian” targets in Syria and Iraq, which have caused at least four deaths in the Iraqi Kurdistan, according to a statement from the military body.
Eleven of those missiles were launched against the Israeli “Mossad headquarters” in Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi region, in which four Israeli spies were killed, according to the version of the elite body.
Iraqi security sources confirmed to EFE that at least eight missiles fell near the US consulate.
The other 13 missiles were directed against targets in Syria of the IS, a group that claimed responsibility for the double attack in Kerman that caused 94 deaths, near the tomb of Qasem Soleimani, a Revolutionary Guard general assassinated by the US in 2020 in a bombing in Iraq.
State in which the home of the Iraqi Kurdish businessman Peshraw Dizayee has been left, after a missile attack against the city of Erbil, in northern Iraq, this January 16. EFE/EPA/Gailan Hakji
Iran vows to “punish” terrorists
“Iran has the legitimate right to deal with threats to the country’s national security,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Naser Kananí, according to the Mehr agency.
“The operations (bombings) are part of Tehran’s just punishment of those who have acted against the country’s security,” the diplomat stated.
After the attacks, the Revolutionary Guard assured that they would find “the petty terrorist groups wherever they are and we will punish them according to their terrible acts,” according to a statement released by the official state agency IRNA.
To further underline the message, the Iranian authorities unveiled a new mural in Tehran’s central Palestine Square in which missiles are seen in mid-flight and in Hebrew and Persian it says: “Prepare your coffins,” IRNA reported.
Criticism from the US, Iraq and Kurdistan
The response from the United States was immediate and Washington called the Iranian attacks “reckless” and “inaccurate.”
US sources have assured that there are no injuries among its personnel in Iraq and Syria and that no damage has been reported to facilities it owns.
A man inspects the damage inside a house after an overnight missile attack on the northern Iraqi city of Erbil on January 16. EFE/EPA/Gailan Haji
For its part, the Government of Iraq summoned the Iranian chargé d’affaires in Baghdad, to whom it delivered a formal protest for the missile attack carried out and assured that it will present a complaint to the UN Security Council for the “Iranian aggression” against safe residential places with ballistic missiles, which caused civilian casualties.”
Furthermore, Iraq’s National Security Advisor, Qasem al Araji, denied today that the attack was directed against an Israeli Mossad headquarters, as Tehran alleges.
Also the Prime Minister of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masrour Barzani, condemned the “cowardly attack against the people of the Kurdistan Region” on his official X account (formerly Twitter).
Meanwhile, the United Nations Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) strongly condemned the attack and considered it “a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the country.
Tensions in the region
The Iranian attack occurs at a time of maximum tension in the Middle East, with Israel’s war in Gaza, in which more than 24,000 people have died, which little by little seems to be spreading to new fronts, with the presence in all of them from Tehran’s allies.
Iran leads the so-called Axis of Resistance, an informal alliance formed by militant organizations such as Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the Islamist movement Hamas and Islamic Jihad, among other groups.
Fragments of glass from a house damaged after a nighttime missile attack aimed at the city of Erbil, in northern Iraq, this January 16. EFE/EPA/Gailan Haji
Faced with accusations from Washington that Tehran is behind the Houthis and other groups, Iran has repeatedly insisted that members of the Axis of Resistance act on their own and do not take orders from it.
The hottest spot right now is the Red Sea, where the Houthis are attacking commercial vessels, prompting US and UK bombings of Yemen.
For their part, the US naval forces reported today that on January 11 they had sunk a “dhow” – a traditional Arab sailboat – without a flag that was illegally transporting “lethal aid” from Iran to resupply the Yemeni Houthis on a mission. in the Arabian Sea in which two US Marines disappeared. With EFE
