Escalating Middle East conflict: Iran strikes Kurdish groups in Iraq

A van drives past a destroyed building following airstrikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs of Ghobeiry neighbourhood, on March 5. Israel said it carried out strikes on Beirut targeting Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, while Lebanese state media reported an Israeli drone strike killed a Hamas official. Israel pounded Tehran with fresh strikes and Iran targeted Kurdish guerrilla groups in Iraq on Thursday as a spiralling war in the Middle East engulfed the entire region.

A conflict ignited on Saturday with US-Israeli attacks that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has spread rapidly, snarling global shipping and energy markets, and sowing panic and chaos in previously safe-haven Gulf nations. In Lebanon, AFPTV images showed buildings in rubble and plumes of black smoke drifting over Beirut after Israeli strikes aimed at Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. AFP reporters in Tehran heard fighter jets screaming across the skies in the west of the city and several explosions as Israel launched a fresh barrage.

Earlier yesterday, Tehran said it had hit Iraq-based Kurdish groups, as the United States reportedly seeks to arm Iranian Kurdish guerrillas to infiltrate Iran. The strikes, which killed a member of 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.

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The strikes were further evidence of how the war is drawing in parties across the region and also further afield. Australia deployed two military aircraft to the theatre while Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said he could not rule out his armed forces taking part in hostilities. The war has also dragged in NATO member Turkey after a missile launched from Iran was destroyed by NATO air defences as it headed towards its airspace. While a Turkish official said the missile appeared to have been aimed at a British base in Cyprus, Turkey summoned the Iranian ambassador over the incident.

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