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TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guards announced on Monday that it had launched ballistic missiles against eastern Syria, targeting militants accused of having recently attacked a military parade.
Government television and the official IRNA IRNA news agency said the attacks had "killed and wounded" militants in Syria, without giving further details. The Syrian state media did not immediately recognize the strike.
Public television broadcast footage of one of its reporters as one of the missiles was launched, identifying the area as being in Kermanshah province in western Iran. According to a chart broadcast by state television, the missiles allegedly flew over central Iraq near the city of Tikrit before landing near the city of Abu Kamal, at the time of the attack. extreme south-east of Syria.
Abu Kamal is in the hands of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. However, the city has already been targeted by militants of the Islamic State extremist group, who have lost almost all the territory they previously held in Syria and Iraq.
The attack adds to the confusion over the person who assaulted the military parade in Ahvaz on September 22, killing at least 24 people and injuring more than 60 others.
Iran first blamed the Arab separatists for the attack in which armed men disguised as soldiers opened fire on the crowd and officials watching the parade from a platform in the southwestern city of country. The Arab separatists also immediately claimed responsibility for the attack and provided details of one of the attackers who finally turned out to be true.
The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the attack, but initially made faulty factual statements about it. Later, ISIS released images of several men that Iran eventually identified as assailants, although they never pledged allegiance to the extremist group.
In announcing the attack, the Iranian media said the missiles targeted the two militants "takfiri" – a term often used by the Islamic State group – and the Ahvazi separatists. The separatists have never collaborated with the Islamic State group.
This is the third time in recent months that Iran has fired ballistic missiles with anger.
Last year, Iran launched ballistic missiles on Syria after a bloody attack by the Islamic State against Tehran, targeting parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In September, Iran launched missiles on Iraq aimed at a base of an Iranian Kurdish separatist group. Separatists say the strike killed at least 11 people and wounded 50.
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Associated press editors Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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