The Middle East is heating up for the millionth time. Two big things today – Iran just struck ISIS in retaliation for the attack in Tehran.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Sunday it launched missiles into eastern Syria targeting Islamic State (ISIS) militants in response to an attack on Iran’s parliament and a shrine in Tehran, warning that it would similarly retaliate on anyone else carrying out attacks in Iran.
The launch of surface-to-surface medium range missiles into Syria’s Deir el-Zour province comes as ISIS militants fleeing a U.S.-led coalition onslaught increasingly try to fortify their positions there.
Activists in Syria said they had no immediate information on damage or casualties from the strikes, launched from Iran’s Kurdistan and Kermanshah provinces. Social media was awash in shaky mobile phone footage from those areas, allegedly showing the missiles rise in an orange glow before heading toward their targets.
Sunday’s assault marked an extremely rare direct attack from the Islamic Republic amid its support for embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, a hard-line paramilitary force, has seen advisers and fighters killed in the conflict.
AND apparently a Syrian warplane struck U.S. allied forces, so the U.S. retaliated by shooting down the warplane.
JUST IN: U.S. military says warplane shot down Syrian aircraft that dropped bombs near U.S.-backed fighters in Syria
— Reuters World (@ReutersWorld) June 18, 2017
BREAKING: US F-18 Hornet jet shoots down Syrian warplane near Raqqa, Syria after it attacked US-backed forces, US Central Command says
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) June 18, 2017
JUST IN: U.S. F/A-18E Super Hornet shoots down Syrian regime fighter jet south of Taqba, the first such occurrence in Syria. pic.twitter.com/baxJyIpNk9
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 18, 2017
Now you might think, eh who cares, it’s Syria, right? Except that RUSSIA is backing Bashar Al-Assad, and when we struck his forces before, they warned us not to do it again, and that they might take action to prevent it from happening again.
So that’s where we’re at.