Iran’s missile attack on Islamic State targets in Syria on Sunday was by all accounts, a resounding failure. Of the seven missiles fired at the ISIS-held Syrian town of Deir el-Zour, only two were reported to have reached their target.
Three of the rockets fell outside Syrian territory, in Iraq, while the remaining two fell somewhere inside Syria, missing their targets by many kilometers.
Iran used seven ground-to-ground mid-range Zulfiqar missiles. These new missiles were considered to be extremely accurate. Furthermore, while the possible firing range of the missiles is thought to extend to between seven hundred and eight hundred kilometers, Sunday’s missiles only travelled four-hundred-and-fifty kilometers to their targets.
Israeli military sources told Haaretz that the operational results of the Iranian missile attack was “a great deal less impressive than the media noise being made in Iran around the launch.”
On Monday, Iran announced that its missile attack on the Islamic State was not only in response to the jihadist attacks in Tehran, but were also meant as a message to Saudi Arabia and the United States.
The attack marked the first time in fifteen years that Iran has used such missiles, and the first time it has used such weaponry in the Syrian civil war. Tehran supports and is providing assistance to Syrian regime leader, Bashar al-Assad.
