Iran hits Kurdish groups in Iraq
Fresh blasts were reported in Iran’s capital on Thursday as Tehran said it had targeted Kurdish groups in Iraq and warned “separatist groups” against action in the widening war.
The conflict that began Saturday with US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader has spread across much of the region, sparking global economic pressure, energy disruptions, and travel chaos.
Iran’s retaliatory strikes have targeted many of its Gulf neighbors which host US military bases, while Israel has hit Lebanon and moved forces across the border.
On Thursday, Tehran said it had hit Iraq-based Kurdish groups “opposed to the revolution,” as reports said the United States was looking to arm Kurdish guerrillas to infiltrate Iran.
The strikes which killed a member from an exiled Iranian Kurdish group, according to a representative, followed a warning from Iranian officials.
“Separatist groups should not think that a breeze has blown and try to take action,” said Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. “We will not tolerate them in any way.”
Drawing in parties
The strikes were further evidence of how the war launched by the US and Israel is drawing in parties across the region.
It has also caused market ructions and will test global economic resilience “yet again,” the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned Thursday.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have claimed the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf chokepoint through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil flows, with oil tanker transits down 90 percent, according to market intelligence firm Kpler.
US officials from President Donald Trump down have given varying reasons for starting the war and shifting explanations of its aims.
It was launched without explicit approval from lawmakers, but the US Senate on Wednesday rejected a resolution aimed at curbing Trump’s authority to continue strikes.
The bid failed along largely party lines, with Republicans backing Trump.
Even if the measure had cleared the Senate and the House—where a vote on a similar resolution is expected Thursday—Trump would have been able to veto it.
Warship torpedoed
The United States torpedoed an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
Sri Lankan officials have recovered 87 bodies, with over 60 remaining missing in the strike on the IRIS Dena frigate. Another 32 sailors were rescued by Sri Lankan forces.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency said 1,045 military personnel and civilians have been killed since the war began, a toll Agence France-Presse (AFP) could not independently verify.
Iran says more than 150 people, many of them children, were killed in a strike on a school Saturday in the southern town of Minab. US officials have said they are investigating the reported deaths.
US authorities say six soldiers have died in the war.
IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva meanwhile warned Thursday that the conflict would test global economic resilience.
“We are potentially in a prolonged period of flux,” she said.
A tanker in the waters off Kuwait became the latest casualty of the conflict, after it was hit with a “large explosion” that caused an oil spill, the British maritime security agency UKMTO reported.
Facing energy shortages, South Korea said it was activating a $68-billion market stabilization fund, while China reportedly told oil refiners to stop exporting diesel and gasoline.
China also announced it would send a special envoy to mediate in the conflict, though it gave no further details.
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