Iran targets 'terrorists' in missile strike on Isis-held Syrian town

Iran has launched missile strikes targeting “terrorists” in the Islamic State-controlled Syrian town of Deir ez-Zour in retaliation for last week’s attacks on the Iranian parliament and at the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini that killed 18 people – mostly civilians.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards, elite forces heavily involved in propping up Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, said in a statement on Sunday that it fired missiles from a base in western Iran hitting the headquarters of “Takfiri terrorists” in Deir ez-Zour, eastern Syria, referring to the Iranian terminology for extremist Sunni jihadis.

Although the Revolutionary Guards are fighting Isis in Syria and neighbouring Iraq, it is the first time that the they have admitted conducting such strikes from inside Iranian territory.

“The terrorists’ command centre, concentration points and logistical centres used for assembling cars for suicide attacks in Deir ez-Zour region in eastern Syria came under attack by the [Revolutionary Guards] moments ago in a move to punish the terrorists for the twin attacks on the Iranian parliament and the holy shrine of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, on 7 June,” read the Revolutionary Guards’ statement, the semi-official Fars news agency reported late on Sunday.