IRAQ HAS CONDEMNED Israel’s use of its airspace to attack neighbouring Iran in a protest letter sent to United Nations chief Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council, Baghdad said today.
A statement from government spokesman Bassim Alawadi said the letter condemns “the Zionist entity’s blatant violation of Iraq’s airspace and sovereignty by using Iraqi airspace to carry out an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran on 26 October”.
Alawadi said the Iraqi foreign ministry would also bring up “this violation” in talks with the United States, Israel’s closest ally and top arms provider.
The Israeli strikes took place on Saturday and were the latest episode in an ongoing tit-for-tat exchange between the two regional powers.
Iraq has largely remained on the sidelines of the ongoing wars in the Middle East but some armed groups with links to Iran have launched some drone and missile attacks against Israel since the war in Gaza began last year.
One such group, Kataeb Hezbollah, condemned the Israeli use of Iraqi airspace to attack Iran as a “dangerous precedent”.
It accused the United States of being complicit in the Israeli attack, warning both of a response to this “aggression”.
While Iran has sought to play down the effects of Israel’s attack, especially in the media, the top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has warned Israel it would face “bitter consequences” after its attack.
Guards chief Hossein Salami, quoted by Tasnim news agency, said Israel had “failed to achieve its ominous goals”.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said today that Tehran would “respond firmly and effectively” to the strikes.
“We are using all available means to respond firmly and effectively to the aggression of the Zionist regime,” Baghaei told a regular news conference.
“The nature of our response will depend on the nature of the attack.”
Israel struck military sites in response to Tehran’s 1 October missile attack, itself retaliation for the killing of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and a Revolutionary Guards commander.
Salami said the Israeli attack was a sign of “miscalculation and helplessness”.
“Its bitter consequences will be unimaginable” for Israel, Salami warned according to Tasnim.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Israel struck the southern city of Tyre today, killing at least five people and wounding 10 others.
Since then, the Israeli army has told residents in parts of Tyre to leave immediately, warning that it would attack Hezbollah targets there.
“Hezbollah’s activities force the (Israeli army) to act against it forcefully,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X that included a map of targeted areas in the coastal city, urging residents to “head north”.
The IDF issues an urgent evacuation warning to residents of Lebanon's Tyre, ahead of airstrikes against Hezbollah sites.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 28, 2024
"Hezbollah's activity forces the IDF to act in the area you are in. The IDF does not want to harm you," Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF's Arabic-language… pic.twitter.com/UBMhNCViM5
The “Israeli enemy strike this morning on a building” in the centre of the coastal city “led to a provisional toll of five dead and 10 wounded”, a Lebanese health ministry statement said.
It added that “work is ongoing to remove the rubble”.
An AFP video journalist saw emergency personnel rush a survivor to an ambulance on a stretcher, while other rescuers worked to put out a heavily smouldering fire at the site, where a residential apartment block had collapsed like a pancake.
Tyre, an ancient coastal city which boasts a UNESCO World Heritage site, was subjected to heavy Israeli strikes last week, leaving swathes of the centre in ruins.
Israel last month escalated air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds and sent ground forces into Lebanon, following a year of cross-border exchanges of fire with the Iran-backed group over the Gaza war.
With reporting from AFP
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