The overnight attacks drew the ire of Baghdad, Which threatened to file a complaint at the UN Security Council.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced in the early hours of 16 January that multiple ballistic missiles successfully hit positions of the Israeli Mossad in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR) and the headquarters of the anti-Iran Turkestan Islamic Party in Syria’s Idlib governorate.
“In response to the recent crimes committed by terrorist groups and the martyrdom of a number of our citizens in Kerman and Rask, the gathering places of leaders and key elements associated with the recent terrorist operations that took place in Iran were bombed. In particular, ISIS was bombed in part of the occupied Syrian territory and destroyed via several ballistic missiles,” the IRGC said in a statement.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the terror attack that left dozens dead near the tomb of the late Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani. According to Tehran, their intelligence determined that the masterminds of the attack were gathered in Idlib in territory controlled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) armed group – formerly known as the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran always supports the peace, stability, and security of the region and adheres to the observance of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said on Tuesday morning, adding: “Terrorism is a pervasive global threat and Iran is determined to fight terrorism within the framework of joint regional and international cooperation.”
According to local sources who spoke with Al-Mayadeen, the attack on northwest Syria “targeted training camps, logistical support headquarters, and a medical point for militants of the Turkestan Islamic Party” in an area “where ISIS Khorasan militants are trained and are transported by the US to Afghanistan and the Iranian border, to direct strikes inside Iran.”
In Erbil, the capital of the IKR, the Iranian missiles leveled an alleged Mossad base that was reportedly involved in coordinating the recent assassinations of several commanders of the IRGC and the Resistance Axis, in particular IRGC General Razi Mousavi.
The IRGC noted that the Mossad center was used “to develop espionage operations and plan acts of terrorism” across the region, especially in Iran.
In response to the attack, the Iraqi government condemned Iran and threatened to “take all legal measures” and submit a complaint to the UN Security Council.
“The government of the Republic of Iraq expresses its strong denunciation and condemnation of the Iranian aggression against the city of Erbil, represented by the bombing of safe residential places with ballistic missiles, which led to casualties among civilians,” the Iraqi foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that the attack is “an aggression against the sovereignty of Iraq and the security of the Iraqi people, and an insult to good neighborliness and the security of the region.”
Thursday’s attack killed Kurdish oil tycoon Peshraw Dizayee, owner of the Empire and Falcon Group, which reportedly facilitated oil exports to Israel.
Iran last fired ballistic missiles at Erbil in March 2022, destroying a secret Mossad compound and killing nearly a dozen Israeli operatives.
“There is – among others – an Israeli Mossad presence. And this presence provokes Iran into attacking their sites in the Kurdistan region. Iran has done this before and will probably do it again,” the official spokesman of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party’s Erbil office, Azad Jolla, told The Cradle at the time.
Washington was quick to respond to the Iranian attacks on Tuesday, calling them “a reckless and imprecise set of strikes.”
“We will continue to assess the situation, but initial indications are that this was a reckless and imprecise set of strikes,” Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement.
The attacks, described by some as the longest-distance attacks in Iran’s history, came hours after the US army announced the deployment of 1,500 new troops to Iraq and Syria to bolster its pro-Israel actions.