Iran launches missiles into Syria over parade attack

Images released by Iran's Revolutionary Guard claim to show missiles fired into eastern Syria. (AFP)

Dozens of people were killed with dozens others wounded in an attack in the southwestern Khuzestan province on September 22. (AFP)

• State television and the state-run IRNA news agency said the attacks "killed and wounded" militants, without elaborating
• The report Monday specified the missile launches came after the Ahvaz attack, which killed at least 24 people and wounded over 60

TEHRAN: Iran said it fired missiles on Monday at Daesh militants in Syria it blames for an attack on its soil last month and said the action shows the government’s readiness to punish the “wickedness” of its enemies.
The Sept. 22 attack on a military parade in south-western Iran killed 25 people, nearly half of them members of the elite Revolutionary Guards.
Monday’s strike targeted the bases of “takfiri terrorists” backed by Washington and regional powers in eastern Syria, the Guards said in a statement. It killed a number of militant leaders and destroyed their supplies and infrastructure, they said.
The strike targeted the last pocket of territory in southeastern Syria held by Daesh, said an official in the Iran-backed regional alliance fighting in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
It is an area where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched a new offensive last month against Daesh.
The US-led coalition confirmed Iranian forces had conducted “no notice strikes last night.”
“At this time, the coalition is still assessing if any damage occurred and no coalition forces were in danger,” Col. spokesman Sean Ryan said.
Fars News posted video footage of several missiles streaking into a dark sky during the attack.
The six ballistic missiles used in the attack flew 570 km to hit the targets, the Guards said. A map shown on state TV pinpointed Kermanshah in western Iran as the launch site and Albu Kamal in southeast Syria as the target.
The missiles were Iranian-made Zolfaqar and Qiam missiles, Fars News reported.
“Our iron fist is prepared to deliver a decisive and crushing response to any wickedness and mischief of the enemies,” the Guards, the most powerful military force in the Islamic Republic, said.
Seven drones were also used to bomb militant targets during the attack, they said.
The Ahvaz National Resistance, an Iranian ethnic Arab separatist movement, and Daesh have both claimed responsibility for the attack. Neither group has presented conclusive evidence to back up its claim.
A senior Revolutionary Guards commander said on Monday that Daesh militants in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province had helped coordinate the parade attack.
These Daesh militants were the target of the missile strike, said Major General Mohammad Baqeri, the armed forces chief of staff, according to Fars News.
“The area east of the Euphrates where Islamic State is based is under the control of the American military and the Guards’ missiles hit an area that is close to the area under American control,” Baqeri said.
He added, “All of these are a warning for the enemies so they don’t move toward creating insecurity in Iran.”
Iranian military support has been vital to helping Assad through the Syrian war, and Iran-backed forces are deployed in southeastern Syria on the west bank of the Euphrates River. Iran has dismissed US demands that it leave Syria.
The official in the Iran-backed alliance described Monday’s strike, targeting an area on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, as a “limited message.” “One of the messages, to those it concerns, is that ‘our missiles are one of our powerful cards that are ready to respond whenever we want’,” the official said.
Saudi Arabia strongly dismissed and condemned Iranian accusations that the militants responsible for the Sept. 22 attack were paid by the Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.