Iran announces strikes in northern Iraq and Syria as regional tensions increase

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and SALAR SALIM
Associated Press

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iran has announced that it launched strikes against a “spy headquarters and the gathering of anti-Iranian terrorist groups” shortly after missiles hit an area near the U.S. consulate in Irbil, the seat of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Soon after, a statement from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on state media said it had struck “terrorist operations” including Islamic State targets in Syria “and destroyed them by firing a number of ballistic missiles.” Another statement claims that it had hit a headquarters of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, in the Kurdish region of Iraq.