Iran Strikes Close To Home But It Is Wary Of A Wider War

Tehran is raising the risk of a miscalculation at a time of high tension due to the Israel-Hamas conflict

- Kim Sengupta

Direct military actions by Iran outside its border are rare, despite often aggressive rhetoric to the contrary: this is because Tehran has built up a chain of proxy militias across the Middle East that can fight on its behalf when necessary.

Thus the series of strikes carried out by Iran on three of its neighbouring countries – Iraq, Syria and Pakistan – in the last few days is a highly unusual development, and has led to heightened concern about a bloody conflict spiralling across the region and beyond.

Two of the attacks, in Syria and Pakistan, were aimed, according to Tehran, at Sunni extremist groups that had carried out atrocities in Iran.

Earlier this month, suicide bombers killed 84 people in Kerman during commemorations of the death of Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who was killed in an American drone strike four years ago. Last month, a dozen police officers were killed in explosions at their base in Rask near the Pakistan border.

Isis claimed responsibility for the Kerman bombing. The Rask blasts are believed to have been carried out by Jaish al-Adl, another Salafist group.

However, the attack in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, said the Iranians, targeted an “Israeli espionage headquarters” based near the US consulate in Erbil. An IRGC commander, Sayyed Razi Mousavi, was killed in late December in an Israeli airstrike – a death Tehran vowed “would be avenged”, saying: “Israel will pay for this crime.”