By Parisa Hafezi and Timour Azhari
DUBAI/BAGHDAD (Reuters) -Iran’s Revolutionary Guards stated they attacked the spy headquarters of Israel in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan area, state media reported late on Monday, whereas the elite power stated additionally they struck in Syria in opposition to the Islamic State.
The strikes come amid issues concerning the escalation of a battle that has unfold via the Center East for the reason that struggle between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas started on Oct. 7, with Iran’s allies additionally coming into the fray from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
“In response to the current atrocities of the Zionist regime, inflicting the killing of commanders of the Guards and the Axis of Resistance … one of many principal Mossad espionage headquarters in Iraq’s Kurdistan area was destroyed with ballistic missiles,” the Guards stated in a press release.
Israeli authorities officers couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
Along with the strikes at northeast of Kurdistan’s capital Erbil in a residential space close to the U.S. consulate, the Guards stated they “fired plenty of ballistic missiles in Syria and destroyed the perpetrators of terrorist operations” in Iran, together with the Islamic State.
Islamic State claimed duty for 2 explosions in Iran this month that killed almost 100 folks and wounded scores at a memorial for high commander Qassem Soleimani.
“We guarantee our nation that the Guards’ offensive operations will proceed till avenging the final drops of martyrs’ blood,” the Guards’ assertion stated.
Iran had already vowed revenge for the killing of three members of the Guards in Syria final month, together with a senior Guards commander, who had served as navy advisers there.
Three safety sources and Iranian state media stated on the time they have been killed in an Israeli air strike. An Israeli mililtary spokesman declined to remark, saying solely it had a job to guard the safety pursuits of Israel.
Whereas recalling its envoy from Tehran, Iraq summoned Iran’s cost d’affaires in Baghdad to protest in opposition to the strikes, the overseas ministry stated. It stated Baghdad would take all authorized measures in opposition to what it referred to as a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.
MILLIONAIRE AMONG DEAD
The U.S. State Division condemned the assaults close to Erbil, calling them “reckless”, however officers stated no U.S. services have been focused and there have been no U.S. casualties.
“America helps the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Iraq,” Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White Home Nationwide Safety Council, stated within the assertion.
Iran, which helps Hamas in its struggle with Israel, accuses america of backing what it calls Israeli crimes in Gaza. The U.S. has stated it backs Israel in its marketing campaign however has raised issues concerning the variety of Palestinian civilians killed.
Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani condemned the assault on Erbil as a “crime in opposition to the Kurdish folks”.
No less than 4 civilians have been killed and 6 injured within the strikes, the Kurdistan authorities’s safety council stated.
Multimillionaire Kurdish businessman Peshraw Dizayee and several other members of his household have been among the many useless, killed when a minimum of one rocket crashed into their residence, Iraqi safety and medical sources stated.
Dizayee, who was near the ruling Barzani clan, owned companies that led main actual property tasks in Kurdistan.
Moreover, one rocket had fallen on the home of a senior Kurdish intelligence official and one other on a Kurdish intelligence centre and air visitors at Erbil airport was halted, the safety sources stated.
Iran has up to now carried out strikes in Iraq’s Kurdistan area, saying the world is used as a staging floor for Iranian separatist teams in addition to brokers of its arch-foe Israel.
Baghdad has tried to deal with Iranian issues over separatist teams within the area, shifting to relocate some members as a part of a safety settlement reached with Tehran in 2023.