US Slams Iran For Strikes On Syria, Iraq; Raising Regional Risks

On the night of 15/16 Jan, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) launched a number of ballistic missile attacks on sites in Syria and Iraq. The IRGC claimed that the missile strike on the city of Erbil in the Iraqi Kurdistan region was aimed at an alleged Mossad 'spy headquarters' based there. The attack killed four Iraqis and was came dangerously close to the US consulate in the city. Iran labeled the attack as retaliation to an Israeli strike that killed an IRGC commander in a suburb of Damascus in December.

• Iran also claimed that it struck Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria in response to the Kerman bombings in early January that claimed at least 94 Iranian lives.
• US State Dep't spox Matthew Miller said in response, “We oppose Iran’s reckless missile strikes, which undermine Iraq’s stability...We support the government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s efforts to meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people.”
• The Iranian attacks add further pressure to the already-tense situation in the region amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Israeli strikeson targets in Lebanon, and Houthi aerial and seaborne attacks on shipping in and around the Red Sea that has brought the US and its allies into the region in force and led to US/UK airstrikes on Yemeni soil.