Iran’s Guards say targeted Israeli ‘strategic centre’ in Iraq

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Sunday
said that they targeted an Israeli “strategic centre” in Iraq with missiles,
after Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq reported cross-border missile
fire.

A “strategic centre for conspiracy and mischiefs of the Zionists was targeted
by powerful precision missiles fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards
Corps.”, said a statement on Sepah News, the Guards’ official website.

Earlier, security forces in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region said “a dozen
ballistic missiles” targeted Iraq’s northern city of Arbil, including US
facilities, causing damage but no major casualties in the early hours of
Sunday.

Sunday’s attack on Arbil comes nearly a week after two officers from Iran’s
Revolutionary Guards were killed in Syria in a strike attributed to key US
ally Israel.

Iraq, including the Kurdistan region, is home to a dwindling number of US
troops who led a coalition fighting the Islamic State jihadist group. The US
is a key ally of Israel.

The Guards had already warned on Tuesday that Israel, the Islamic republic’s
arch enemy, “will pay for this crime”.

The Guards’ statement on Sunday said: “once again, we warn the criminal
Zionist regime that the repetition of any mischief will face harsh, decisive
and destructive responses.”

“We also assure the great nation of Iran that the security and peace of the
Islamic homeland is the red line of the Iranian armed forces and they will
not allow anyone to threaten or attack it,” it added.

Washington has routinely blamed rocket and drone attacks against its
interests in Iraq on pro-Iran groups who demand the departure of the
remaining troops.

But cross-border missile fire is rare.

AFP