The attacks are said to be in retaliation for, among other things, the devastating attack in the southern Iranian city of Kerman in early January and the killing of a high-ranking IRGC officer at the end of December, according to the IRGC web portal. The target in Iraq's Kurdish areas was described by the Revolutionary Guard as a spy center for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. 'We assure our beloved people that the offensive operations of the Revolutionary Guard will continue until every drop of the martyrs' blood is avenged,' the statement said. Loud explosions were heard shortly before midnight in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil. According to eyewitnesses, several missiles struck near a newly built US consulate. According to security sources in Erbil, four civilians were killed and five others injured. Rockets hit farms north of Erbil and hit houses. According to the Revolutionary Guards, in Syria, the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) was mainly targeted 'in the occupied areas of Syria and destroyed by the firing of a series of ballistic missiles', according to the statement. According to the state news agency Irna, extremist groups in the province of Idlib were attacked. According to Irna, this attack, with a range of more than 1,200 kilometers, is the longest-range missile operation the country has carried out. This is also likely to be a clear signal to arch-enemy Israel. It would be roughly the same distance that rockets from the western part of the country would need to reach Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. The Kurdish human rights organization Hengaw had previously reported on X (formerly Twitter) about a rocket attack from an IRGC missile base in western Iran. This was aimed at the city of Erbil, wrote the organization based in Norway. The information could not be verified at first. Meanwhile, the Security Council of the Kurdish autonomous regions described the justifications of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard for the attack in Erbil as mere pretexts. The attack is a violation of the sovereignty of the region and Iraq, said an initial statement overnight. Erbil is 'not a source of threat' and will not be in the future, 'but the Guard forces are using false pretexts to undermine the country's stability.' Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani strongly condemned the 'cowardly attack on the people in the Kurdistan region' on the platform X, formerly Twitter, and urged the government in Baghdad to take a clear stance against this violation of sovereignty. Since the outbreak of the Gaza war more than three months ago, the situation in the region has been extremely tense. There have been no rocket attacks by the IRGC since then. However, militant groups allied with Iran have frequently targeted sites in Syria and Iraq in recent months. Israel and the US have been considered Iran's arch-enemies since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. In late December, Iranian Brigadier General Sejed-Rasi Mussawi was killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike in Syria. He was a high-ranking member of the IRGC. Iran's military leadership then vowed revenge on Israel. The Revolutionary Guard is Iran's elite unit and is considered far more powerful than the regular armed forces. The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, is the commander-in-chief. In early January, more than 90 people were killed in a terrorist attack in the city of Kerman. The attack was claimed by IS and targeted a memorial event on the anniversary of the death of powerful General Qasem Soleimani in his hometown. It was the deadliest attack in the Islamic Republic's 45-year history.