Missiles are launched in response to attack on parade
IRAN’S PARAMILITARY Revolutionary Guard said yesterday that it had launched ballistic missiles into eastern Syria targeting militants it blamed for a recent attack on a military parade.
State television and the staterun IRNA news agency said the attacks “killed and wounded” militants in Syria, without elaborating. Syrian state media did not immediately acknowledge the strike.
State TV aired footage of one of its reporters standing by as one of the missiles launched, identifying the area as being in Iran’s western province of Kermanshah.
A state TV-aired graphic suggested the missiles flew over central Iraq near the city of Tikrit before landing near the city of Abu Kamal, in the far south-east of Syria.
Abu Kamal is held by forces loyal to Syria’s embattled president Bashar Assad. However, the city has been targeted even now by militants from the extremist Islamic State group, who have lost almost all the territory they once held in Syria and Iraq.
The attack adds to confusion over who carried out an assault on a military parade in Ahvaz on September 22 that killed at least 24 people and wounded more than 60.
Iran initially blamed Arab separatists for the attack in which gunmen disguised as soldiers opened fire on the crowd and officials watching the parade from a riser in the south-western city.
Arab separatists also immediately claimed the attack and offered details about one of the attackers that ultimately turned out to be true.
The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the assault, but initially made factual incorrect claims about it. Later, IS released footage of several men that Iran ultimately identified as attackers, though the men in the footage never pledged allegiance to the extremist group.