Iran launches strikes on 'terrorist' targets in Iraq, Syria amid escalating regional tensions

Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched missile attacks on multiple “terrorist” targets in Syria and Iran's autonomous Kurdistan region, the official IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday as quoted by AFP. 

The attacks destroyed a “spy headquarters” and a ”gathering of anti-Iranian terrorist groups" in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Four people were killed and six others wounded in the attack, according to Iraq's Kurdistan security council.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party stated that prominent businessman Peshraw Dizayee was among several civilians who were killed in the attack. 

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 Islamic State 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, as per AFP reports. 

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 Qasem Soleimani in Kerman, killing around 90 people. The attack was later claimed by IS.

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

Regional tensions have spiked during the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, drawing in Iran-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

In March 2022, the IRGC carried out missile attacks in Arbil, claiming to target a "strategic centre" belonging to arch-foe Israel.

On December 25, Iran said an Israeli strike killed the senior Guards commander Razi Moussavi.

(With AFP inputs)