Arab League condemns Iran’s missile strikes on Iraq

Emergency services work at the house of Peshraw Dizayi, which was the target of Iranian missile strikes, Irbil, Iraq, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (AP Photo)
Short Url
Updated 18 January 2024
Follow

Arab League condemns Iran’s missile strikes on Iraq

  • Chief describes attack as ‘a flagrant violation’ of country’s sovereignty
  • Arab Parliament says it was ‘a blatant assault on Arab national security’

CAIRO: The Arab League and Arab Parliament have condemned Iran’s missile strikes on the city of Irbil in northern Iraq, which led to the deaths of several civilians.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, head of the Arab League, said the attacks were a flagrant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty. He offered his condolences to the families of the victims and wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured.

His spokesman, Jamal Rushdi, described the attack by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as reprehensible and a “condemnable violation of the principles of sovereignty and good neighborliness.”

It constituted a dangerous development and raised the level of danger amid the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel in the region, he said.

Rushdi reiterated the league’s solidarity with the Iraqi government, citing the measures it takes to maintain the country’s sovereignty and security, and to maintain regional stability.

The Arab Parliament said: “This Iranian aggression … is a blatant assault on Arab national security because the security and stability of Iraq is an integral part of Arab security.”

It reaffirmed its “full solidarity with Iraq in all the measures it will take to preserve its sovereignty and stability and preserve the security of its citizens.”

It also expressed its condolences to the families of the victims.

The IRGC said on Tuesday it launched four missiles at Daesh positions in Syria’s Idlib province and 11 missiles at the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, where it said it hit a center of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.


Algeria says army kills four ‘terrorists’

Updated 9 sec ago
Follow

Algeria says army kills four ‘terrorists’

The Algerian defense ministry said the army killed four “terrorists” on Sunday in a mountainous region of the northwest.
A ministry statement said the operation was still ongoing in the Djebel Amrouna area about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Algiers.
It said soldiers had “eliminated four terrorists,” and seized four Kalashnikov assault rifles and ammunition.
The army regularly announces the arrests or deaths of “terrorists,” the authorities’ term for armed Islamists still active since the North African country’s 1992-2002 civil war.
Despite a 2005 Charter for Peace and Reconciliation aimed at turning the page on the violence, armed groups continue to mount sporadic attacks.
The so-called “black decade” of the civil war officially left 200,000 people dead.
According to the defense ministry, so far this year the army has “killed 21 terrorists, captured 8 others, and 38 terrorists have repented.”
It said “369 individuals supporting terrorist groups were arrested” in the same period, and more than 100 weapons were recovered.