Iran Guards hit targets in Iraq, Syria

TEHRAN — Iran's Revolutionary Guards have launched missile attacks on multiple "terrorist" targets in Syria and in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, state media reported on Tuesday.

The attacks destroyed "a spy headquarters" and a "gathering of anti-Iranian terrorist groups" in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, the 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 Daesh 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 Qassem Soleimani in Kerman, killing around 90 people. The attack was later claimed by Daesh.

In December, at least 11 Iranian police officers were killed in an attack on a police station in Rask. The militant group Jaish Al Adl (Army of Justice), which was formed in 2012 and is blacklisted by Iran as a “terrorist” group, claimed responsibility.