Iran’s strikes on Iraq and Syria ‘message’ to foes

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Iran conducted its longest range ballistic missile attack on Monday night, destroying the home of a Kurdish businessman in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

Among five civilians killed in Erbil were Kurdish business mogul Peshraw Dizayee and his family, including his 11-month-old daughter.

Iran also hit targets in eastern Syria in a separate missile attack on the same night.

In both instances, Iran claimed the attacks were in response to a January 3 bombing in Kerman, Iran, which killed nearly 100 people at an event commemorating Iranian general Qassem Suleimani’s death in a 2020 US air strike near Baghdad.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei had vowed a “harsh response” to the attack, which was claimed by ISIS, but which Tehran has blamed on Israel and the US.

The missile strike on Erbil was the second Iranian attack on the city in recent years, after a strike in 2022, which Iran says was in response to an Israeli attack on its territory with Kurdish assistance. That strike destroyed the home of Baz Karim Barzanji, a businessman who, like Mr Dizayee, was close to Erbil’s ruling Kurdish Democratic Party.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday night’s attacks were also in response to an Israeli air strike, this time in Syria, which killed two IRGC members.

“In response to the recent evil acts of the Zionist regime in martyring IRGC and resistance commanders, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, with its nobility and intelligence, targeted and destroyed one of the main headquarters of Israel’s spying agency Mossad in Iraq’s Kurdistan region by firing ballistic missiles,” the IRGC said.

“This Mossad headquarters has been working for espionage operations and a centre for terror attacks planning in the region, especially against our beloved country,” it added.

Iran calls ISIS “mercenaries” of Israel, while also claiming that the Kurdish regional government based in Erbil hosts Mossad bases – although no evidence has ever been provided for the long-standing claims.

It has raised questions as to whether Monday’s attacks were linked to the continuing regional escalation between Israel and Iran.