UPDATE 1345 GMT: The Revolutionary Guards’ deputy commander, Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, says in a speech that the US knows “it will be on the losing side if it ever starts a war with Iran and [this will] help further increase Iran’s influence”.

Bolstering and extending the remarks of Guards head Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, Salami insisted, “The US military is incapable of engaging us in a battle and the American economy wouldn’t be able to support the war either.”

He echoed Jafari’s warning that last week’s missile attack on an Iranian Kurdish separatist group in northern Iraq was a warning to enemies: “The Iranian nation defeated the US when it blocked America’s ‘New Middle East’ project.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has sent a warning to “enemies” through its attack on an Iranian Kurdish separatist group in northern Iraq.

Last Sunday the Guards confirmed that they fired seven short-range missiles as leaders of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran gathered at headquarters in Iraqi Kurdistan. At least 11 Kurds were killed.

The head of the Guards, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari (pictured), said on Thursday: “[Our] recent revenge against the terrorists conveys a highly meaningful message to the enemies, particularly those superpowers who think they can impose their evil plots on us and bully us.”

Jafari said the missile strike was in retaliation for KDPI attacks on Iranian security forces in Kordestan Province in northwest Iran, but he widened his audience as he proclaimed, “This capability sent a very decisive message to all enemies.”

He maintained that all “those who have forces, bases and equipment within a 2,000-km radius around Iran” are targets if there is an attack on Iranian soil.

Iran has stepped up its rhetoric against the US and its allies, amid an economic crisis spurred in part by expanding American sanctions as well as ongoing regional tensions such as deadly conflicts in Syria and Yemen and uncertainty over Iraq’s future.

On Wednesday, the head of the Chiefs of Staff, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Baqeri, asserted that the US is provoking the “terrorists” of the KDPI.