Iranian forces fire rockets at Erbil, the Kurdish region of Iraq and suspected ISIS targets in Syria. Tehran is thus intervening directly in the Middle East crisis. An analysis.
The conflict over the war in Gaza is expanding. Iran has now intervened directly in the conflict for the first time and bombed targets in Iraq and Syria. At the same time, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen again attacked ships in the Red Sea and declared Western warships “legitimate targets”. Experts see a dangerous dynamic in the conflict that could affect the entire Middle East.
Iranian drones and missiles struck several buildings near the US Consulate in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, on Tuesday night. At least four people were killed, including a businessman from northern Iraq and members of his family. Tehran said the target of the strikes was an Israeli Mossad secret service base in Erbil. The Kurdish regional government rejected this. According to Iranian information, the attacks in Syria were aimed at the so-called Islamic State (IS).
Iran's regime appeared weak
Turkish Iran expert Arif Keskin sees the first Iranian missile strikes since the start of the Gaza war as a crossroads: Iran's adversaries have so far relied on its only indirect participation in the conflict through allied militias, Keskin told ” Press.” Now Tehran has demonstrated the opposite.