Iran mocks reports its Syria missile strikes fell short
TEHRAN/DUBAI: Iran said Sunday the two-stage missiles it fired at Daesh targets in Syria broke apart over the Iraqi desert as planned, mocking reports that some of the projectiles fell short.
State television’s website quoted the airspace division chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh as saying “we had coordinated the fall of the engines in the desert in Iraq” in advance.
“The missiles we used were two-stage, it means that the engine separates from the warhead,” said Hajizadeh.
He added that US drones hovered over the targets shortly after the Iranian missiles hit them. He said the US may have been informed beforehand about the attack, as they had informed the Russian military, which may have relayed the information to the Americans.
The Guards said it fired six such missiles on Sunday at Daesh targets in the city of Deir Al-Zour, more than 600 km away.
He mocked media reports citing Israeli sources that said some of the missiles fell short of their targets, suggesting that the Israelis were unable to identify two-stage missiles, which are designed to split apart midflight.
“Pity those who call themselves experts and do not understand that these were the firststage engines (that fell), while the warheads hit targets.”
Iranian reports said the Guards launched six Zolfasghar and Qiam missiles. The latter have detachable warheads.
Iran says it is continuously developing its missile program, a key reason US President Donald Trump’s administration has put Iran “on notice.”
Tehrn said the strikes were in retaliation for the attack by five militants linked to the Daesh group that stormed Iran’s Parliament and a shrine to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini this month, killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 50.
50 militants held Iranian authorities have rounded up at least 50 people suspected of links to militant groups in a western province, a prosecutor said on Sunday, the latest in a wave of arrests following twin bomb and gun attacks in Tehran in early June.
The arrests were made days after Iran fired missiles into eastern Syria, aimed at bases of Daesh, which had claimed responsibility for the June 7 attacks in the capital Tehran that killed 18 people.
“Since the terrorist attacks in Tehran, more than 50 supporters and elements linked to terror groups have been arrested in Kermanshah province,” provincial prosecutor Nemat Sadeqi told the state news agency IRNA.
“An appreciable number of suicide belts, electronic detonators, and weapons have been seized from the detainees,” IRNA quoted Sadeqi as saying.
Iranian authorities have announced dozens of arrests following the Tehran attacks. On Saturday, state media said security forces arrested members of a group linked to Daesh, who had planned bombings and suicide attacks in religious centers.
The attacks by the militants on Iran’s Parliament and near the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic’s founder exacerbated regional tensions.