The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps fired six ballistic missiles and launched drone bombers early Monday at targets in eastern Syria, aiming at terrorists it blames for a deadly attack on a military parade last month.
"This is the roaring of missiles belonging to the Revolutionary Guard of the Islamic Revolution," a state TV reporter said as the missiles launched behind him. "In a few minutes, the world of arrogance – especially America, the Zionist regime [Israel] and Al Saud – will hear the sound of Iran's repeated blows."
Al Saud is a reference to Saudi Arabia's royal family.
Last month, at least 25 people were killed and 60 were wounded as four gunmen opened fire on spectators and soldiers in the city of Ahvaz at a parade marking 30 years since the Iran-Iraq war.
Monday's missile attack on Syria was the second by Iran in the span of a month. It comes as tensions mount ahead of renewed U.S. sanctions targeting Tehran's oil industry, poised to take effect in early November.
The attack may have also been a message to Israel, which has been public about its repeated airstrikes on Iranian targets inside Syria.
Among those Iran has blamed for the attack on the parade, are the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia, all of whom denied the allegations.
One missile shown on Iranian state television bore an inscription reading "Death to America, death to Israel, death to Al Saud."
Responding to Iranian allegations that Israel had a hand in the military parade shooting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that "Iran's attempt to tie Israel to the terrorist attack in southern Iran is ridiculous."
"The fact that 'death to Israel' was written on the missiles launched at Syria proves everything," Netanyahu said.
The missile launch further adds to the confusion over who actually did carry out the assault on the military parade. Iran initially blamed Arab separatists for the attack. The Arab separatists, who have long complained of discrimination in Persian-majority Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack and provided accurate details about one of the attackers.
The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the Ahvaz assault, but initially made factually incorrect claims about it. Later, Islamic State released footage of several men that Iran ultimately identified as the attackers, though the men in the footage are not known to have pledged allegiance to the extremist group.
In announcing the launch, Iranian state media said the missiles targeted both "takfiri" terrorists – a term it often applies to the Islamic State group – and Ahvazi separatists. The separatists have not been known to work with Islamic State in the past.
The Ahvaz National Resistance, an Iranian ethnic Arab separatist movement, and the Islamic State have both claimed responsibility for the Sept. 22 attack. Neither group has presented conclusive evidence to back up its claims.
Iranian state TV and the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said the missiles "killed and wounded" militants in Syria, without elaborating. The missiles, launched from western Iran, flew over Iraq and landed near the city of Boukamal in the far southeast of Syria, they reported.
"Terrorists used bullets in Ahvaz," Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the Revolutionary Guard's aerospace division, told the semiofficial Tasnim news agency. "We answered them with missiles."
"The security of the Iranian people is our red line and we will not be found wanting," he said.
A senior Revolutionary Guard commander said on Monday that Islamic State terrorists in Syria's Deir ez-Zor province had helped coordinate the parade attack.
Fars News quoted Maj. Gen. Mohammed Baqeri, the Iranian armed forces chief of staff, as saying that these Islamic State militants were the targets of Monday's missile strike.
"The area east of the Euphrates, where Islamic State is based, is under the control of the American military, and the Guard's missiles hit an area that is close to the area under American control," Baqeri said.
He added, "All of these are a warning for the enemies so they don't move toward creating insecurity in Iran"
The Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary group that answers directly to Iran's supreme leader, said it followed the missiles with bombing runs by seven remotely piloted drones, a first for Iran.
State TV aired footage of a drone dropping what appeared to be an unguided munition.
"Our iron fist is prepared to deliver a decisive and crushing response to any wickedness and mischief of the enemies," the Revolutionary Guard said in a statement.
The city of Boukamal is held by Syrian government forces, but Islamic State still maintains a presence in the area, despite being driven from virtually all the territory it once held in Syria and Iraq.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that the Iranian missiles hit the Islamic State-held town of Hajin, just north of Boukamal.
A U.S. defense official told CNN the Iranian missile strike came within three miles of American troops. The official noted that satellite images from last week showed mobile missile launchers in Iran moving into positions from which the missiles were fired.
A U.S. intelligence assessment concluded Iran was planning a strike on American military forces and interests in Syria and the region.
In a statement, the spokesperson for the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State confirmed the strike but said no coalition forces "were in danger."
Islamic State fighters did not immediately acknowledge the attack.
Mohsen Rezaei, who formerly led the Revolutionary Guard, praised the missile strike on Twitter, adding that the "main punishment is on the way," suggesting more attacks could be imminent.
A map shown on state TV pinpointed Kermanshah in western Iran as the launch site and Albu Kamal in southeast Syria as the target.
The Fars news agency, believed to be close to the Revolutionary Guard, identified the six missiles used as Zolfaghar and Qiam variants, which have ranges of 750 kilometers (470 miles) and 800 kilometers (500 miles) respectively. Those missiles can reach Emirati and Saudi targets, as well as U.S. bases.
This was the third time in about a year that Iran has fired ballistic missiles beyond its borders.
Last year, Iran fired ballistic missiles into Syria over a bloody Islamic State attack on Tehran targeting parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In September, Iran fired missiles into Iraq targeting a base of an Iranian Kurdish separatist group. The separatists say that strike killed at least 15 people and wounded over 50.
"The Iranian missiles are a message to more than one side," said Talal Atrissi, a researcher in regional affairs at Beirut's Al Maaref University. "It is a message that when Iran threatens, it carries out its threats, and this is important for Iran. The second message is that the sanctions will not prevent Iran from defending itself."
Iranian military support has been vital to helping Syrian President Bashar Assad through the civil war there, and Iran-backed forces are deployed in southeastern Syria on the west bank of the Euphrates River. Iran has dismissed U.S. demands that it leave Syria.
