According to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), the initial missile strike focused on locations where commanders and key operatives of recent terrorist incidents in the Iranian cities of Kerman and Rask were believed to be gathering. This strike was said to have been in response to the identification and subsequent destruction of gathering points for the Daesh terrorist group in Syrian territories, achieved through the use of several ballistic missiles.
Subsequently, the IRGC announced that a second missile strike had been executed, aiming at a prominent espionage center operated by the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. The IRGC emphasized that this strike was a demonstration of the Iranian military’s substantial intelligence capabilities, asserting its dominance over the activities and bases of the Israeli regime in the region. Furthermore, the IRGC announced that the Mossad center in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region had been completely obliterated by their missile strike.
These missile strikes followed an earlier terrorist attack in December, which targeted a police station in the southeastern Iranian city of Rask, resulting in the deaths of 11 police officers and injuries to at least six others. Additionally, another attack occurred on January 3, claiming the lives of over 90 civilians as they were en route to the burial site of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani during the fourth anniversary of his martyrdom in the city of Kerman. Although these attacks were carried out by groups such as Daesh, investigations suggested Israeli involvement in the orchestration of these tragic events.
“I think the strikes that the Iranians have carried out are both to target Mossad offices and terrorist organizations but also to send a message to Israelis and Americans that this escalation will hurt them more than anyone else,” Mohammad Marandi, a prominent Iranian political analyst, told Aljazeera. He was referring to Israel’s relentless attacks on the Gaza Strip and the regime’s recent attempts at trying to widen the horizons of the Gaza war and incite a regional conflict. Some of the missiles fired by Iran traveled around 1,200 kilometers to hit terrorist installations in Syria, which is about the same distance between Iran and the occupied territories.
First Published by Tehran Times