US condemns Iran for missile strikes in Iraq and Syria

Posted By: Ashley Smith
January 16, 2024 @ 7:01 am
Local News

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A picture shows a view of a damaged building following a missile strike launched by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Arbil, on Jan. 16, 2024. (Safin Hamid/AFP via Getty Images)

(LONDON) — Iranian missiles targeted two locations, one in Iraq claimed to be used by Israeli intelligence and one in the Syrian city of Idlib, a base for ISIS militants, Iranian military officials said Tuesday.

Four missiles were “successfully fired” toward the Takfiri group, who are affiliated with ISIS, in Idlib, said Amir Ali Hajizadeh, a commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“Also, four missiles were fired from Kermanshah, and seven from West Azerbaijan Province towards the Zionist headquarters in the Kurdistan region of Iraq,” he added.

Explosions had been reported in at least two areas in Iraq, including several that were reported near the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, Iraq, an Iraqi security source told ABC News.

Iran didn’t name the U.S. as a target of the missiles it said it fired and U.S. officials said no American “personnel or facilities” had been targeted.

U.S. officials condemned the strikes, with Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, saying that the “initial indications are that this was a reckless and imprecise set of strikes.”

“The United States supports the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Iraq,” Watson said in a statement.

Four people were killed on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said. Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have launched near-daily drone attacks on bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.

Tuesday’s strikes were a response to the terrorist attack on crowds of people in Kerman, Iran, on the anniversary of the death of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Iran said. That attack killed dozens, according to Iranian officials. ISIS took responsibility.

“The rocket attacks on the Mossad headquarters and terrorists were part of our response to those who acted against national security,” said spokesman of the Islamic Republic Foreign Ministry Nasser Kanaani.

Israel has not commented on Tuesday’s strikes.

Kanaani added, “While the enemy, with a miscalculation, committed a crime against the government and nation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the system with its high intelligence, identified the criminals’ headquarters in a precise and targeted operation. Using precise and accurate projectiles, the Islamic Republic has targeted them.”

The Iraqi government recalled recalled its ambassador in Tehran “for consultations” in response to the strikes, officials said in a statement on social media.

Tuesday’s strikes were the first IRGC missile operation to target two different regions at the same time, local Iranian media reported.

The most recent strike by Iran within Iraq appeared to have been in 2020, when the country fired at least 16 missiles into the neighboring country.

Fars News, a state news agency, reported at the time that the missiles had been surface-to-surface and added that the location of launch was the western city of Kermanshah.