Iran’s Khamenei ordered missile strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria: Guards

The White House said on Monday that coalition forces fighting Islamic State militants in Syria would retain the right to self-defense, and said the United States would work to keep lines of communication open with Russian Federation.

Moscow, for its part, on Monday suspended a crucial safe flights over Syria deal with the USA under a memorandum and called the downing of the jet a “violation” of the Syria’s sovereignty and worldwide law.

Tehran has devoted vast military and financial resources to propping up the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a six-year civil war.

But Sunday’s strike was the first known missile attack launched from Iran into foreign territory since the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88. This month Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters, supported by US advisers and air power, began the battle for Raqqa, the militants’ self-declared capital.

As the major powers on the opposite sides of Syria’s war intensify operations against the Islamic State, the risks of an accidental conflagration appear to be growing by the day.

“We are carrying out operations from inside Iranian territories, like America and Russian Federation, which, as military powers, occupy a special position”, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, an Iranian MP who heads the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said in an interview with state TV. USA officials have claimed that some of these missiles have been given to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are now fighting a coalition of Arab forces, some of whom are US allies.

In addition to downing the Syrian jet near Raqqa, the USA has also fired on Syrian government forces in the east on three occasions in just the last month.

The U.S. action also comes two days after a U.S. warplane shot down a Syrian plane that was attacking U.S. -backed forces near Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de facto capital.

The missiles, which were variously estimated to be between four and six in number, were reportedly launched against Takfiri (extremist) terrorists’ key sites in Syria’s eastern region of Deir Ez-zor by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

That effort has been bolstered by the freeing up of thousands of Shiite militias that had fought in a campaign across the border to capture the city of Mosul from Islamic State militants. The extremists have been trying to fortify their positions in the Syrian city in the face of a USA -led coalition onslaught on Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital. The alliance is dominated by Kurdish forces but also includes Arab forces.

“IDF sources have been saying the operational results of the launches were a lot less impressive than the noise the Iranian media was making about the launch”.

Today an IRGC general said that yesterday’s launch hit ISIS assets and signaled Iran could target the USA and its regional allies. “And we’ve communicated that clearly”, said Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A Guard statement carried on its website said many “terrorists” were killed and their weapons had been destroyed in the strike.

“There is a mechanism that is now suspended after the USA shot down [Syrian] aircraft”.

Speaking in Washington, the top USA military officer said the two sides were in delicate discussions to lower tensions.

The U.S. says Iran’s missiles are a potential threat to the Middle East’s peace and stability.

The Guards’ missile strike sends a message that extends beyond the fighting in Syria, said non-resident fellow Amir Handjani at the Atlantic Council research centre.

Australia is part of the coalition that began airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria in September 2014.