The conflict in Syria saw a series of firsts today, as the Pentagon confirmed that a U.S. fighter jet shot down a Syrian warplane near the city of Raqqa and the Iranian military stated that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched missile strikes at ISIS targets in Syria, in retaliation for the ISIS-claimed terrorist attack in Teheran on 7 June. These are the first reported ground-to-ground strikes in Syria by Iran since the beginning of the civil war in 2011. To understand the broader context in which these Iranian missile strikes occurred, The Cipher Brief spoke with with Emile Nakhleh, a former member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service, to discuss Iran’s goals – and its intended audience.
The Cipher Brief: The strikes are supposedly in retaliation for the terrorist attack in Teheran on 7 June. Do you think there will be more strikes or will Iran draw the line with this action?
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