Elite force fires missiles into Syria over parade attack

TEHRAN — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard launched six ballistic missiles as well as drone bombers early Monday toward eastern Syria, targeting militants it blamed for an attack on a military parade last month while also threatening regional adversaries as Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers unravels.

The missiles had enough range to strike regional U.S. military bases and targets inside both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Iran’s supreme leader has called out the two Arab nations by name, accusing them of being behind the Sept. 22 attack on the parade in the Iranian city of Ahvaz, something denied by both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. At least 24 people were killed.

Monday’s strike was the second missile attack by Iran in a month’s time, and came as tensions rise ahead of renewed U.S. sanctions targeting Tehran’s oil industry that will take effect in early November.

Iranian state TV and the state-run IRNA news agency said the missiles “killed and wounded” militants in Syria, without elaborating. The missiles, launched from western Iran, flew over Iraq and landed near the city of Boukamal in the far southeast of Syria, they reported.

The Guard, a paramilitary group that answers directly to the supreme leader, said it followed the missiles with bombing runs by seven remotely piloted drones, a first for Iran. State TV aired footage of a drone dropping what appeared to be an unguided munition.

Boukamal is held by Syrian government forces, but the Islamic State group still maintains a presence in the area, despite being driven from virtually all the territory it once held in Syria and Iraq.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the missiles hit the Islamic Stateheld town of Hajin, just north of Boukamal.

The U.S. military’s Central Command acknowledged that Iranian forces conducted strikes in the area. “The coalition is still assessing if any damage occurred, and no coalition forces were in danger,” U.S. Army Col. Sean Ryan said.

Islamic State militants did not immediately acknowledge the attack.