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“We tracked the missiles, which impacted in Northern Iraq and Northern Syria. No US personnel or facilities were targeted,” Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement.
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“We will continue to assess the situation, but initial indications are that this was a reckless and imprecise set of strikes,” she said, adding: “The United States supports the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Iraq.”
The IRGC said it had also launched attacks against the “perpetrators of terrorist operations” in Iran, including IS.
Earlier this month, IS claimed responsibility for two explosions that killed nearly 100 people at a memorial for IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2020.
“We assure our nation that the Guards’ offensive operations will continue until avenging the last drops of martyrs’ blood,” an IRGC statement said.
Iran has in the past carried out strikes in Iraq’s mountainous northern Kurdistan region, saying the area is used as a staging ground for Iranian separatist groups as well as agents of its arch-foe Israel.
Baghdad has tried to address Iranian concerns, moving to relocate some groups as part of a security agreement reached with Tehran in 2023.
Iran had also vowed revenge for the killing of three IRGC members in Syria last month, including a senior commander, who had served as military advisers there.
Iran, which supports Hamas in its war with Israel, accuses the US of backing what it calls Israeli crimes in Gaza. The US has said it supports Israel in its campaign to eliminate Hamas, a proscribed terror group, but has raised concerns about the number of Palestinian civilians killed.
More than 24,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israel’s campaign.
Protesters display posters and children’s shoes to represent children killed in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, during a rally outside the US embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Monday.Credit: AP
The strikes come amid concerns about the escalation of a conflict that has spread through the Middle East since Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1200 people. Iran’s allies have also entered the fray from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
More than 130 fighters of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group have been killed in hostilities.
Reuters