Iran Launches Retaliatory Strikes Against Israel

By Global News Service

Credit Line: from the Peoples Dispatch / Globetrotter News Service

Note to Editors: This is a selection of news wire reports that have been edited to be relevant for audiences for the next two weeks. You are welcome to select and publish individual items or the whole stack.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) announced on April 13 that it launched “extensive” missile and drone strikes against Israel in response to the Israeli bombing of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria on April 1. The announcement came nearly two weeks after the attack which killed 13 people, including senior Iranian commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi as well as his deputy Mohammad Hadi Haji-Rahimi.

Iran, as well as several other key players in the Axis of Resistance, had repeatedly warned that retaliation would come after the Damascus attack. “We will give a decisive response to this action,” said Iran’s Ambassador to Damascus Hossein Akbari at the time. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said during his Quds International Day Address, “Be certain that Iran’s response to the targeting of its Damascus consulate is inevitable.”

Following Iran’s strikes against Israel, the IRGC released a statement, declaring that “in response to the Zionist regime’s numerous crimes, including the attack on the consular section of Iran’s Embassy in Damascus and the martyrdom of a number of our country’s commanders and military advisors in Syria, the IRGC’s Aerospace Division launched tens of missiles and drones against certain targets inside the occupied territories.”

The first official response from the U.S. government came from White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson. She wrote, “President Biden has been clear: our support for Israel’s security is ironclad. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran.”