ERBIL, Iraq — Iran claimed responsibility for a missile strike Sunday on the northern
Iraqi city of
Erbil, saying it targeted an Israeli “strategic center” and
warning of more attacks.
اضافة اعلان
Authorities in
Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region said 12 ballistic missiles rained down on
Erbil in a predawn cross-border attack targeting US interests that slightly
wounded two civilians and caused material damage.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards corps (IRGC) confirmed
they fired the projectiles, claiming they were targeting sites used by Israel,
a top ally of the US.
A “strategic
center for conspiracy and mischiefs of the Zionists was targeted by powerful
precision missiles fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps”, the Guards
said in a statement.
There was no
immediate reaction from Israel. Kurdish authorities insisted that Israel has no
sites in or anywhere near Erbil, and accused Iran of repeatedly targeting the
autonomous region without international censure.
Iran holds
considerable influence over the federal government in Baghdad, and Iraq is home
to a dwindling number of
US troops who lead a coalition against Daesh.
Washington has
routinely blamed rocket and drone attacks on its interests in Iraq — including
sites in Kurdistan — on pro-Iran groups who demand the departure of the
remaining troops.
But cross-border
missile fire is rare.
‘Baseless allegations’
An AFP correspondent in Erbil said he heard three explosions before
dawn.
Taxi driver
Ziryan Wazir said he was in his car when the missiles struck.
“I saw a lot of
dust, then I heard a very loud noise. The windows of my car exploded and I was
injured in the face,” he said, his head swathed in white gauze and a bloodied
running the length of his cheek.
Sunday’s missile
assault comes nearly a week after the Guards — Iran’s ideological army — vowed
to avenge the death of two of their officers killed in a rocket attack in Syria
they blamed on Israel. Iran backs the government in Syria’s
civil war.
Israel, the
Guards said at the time, “will pay for this crime”.
The
Kurdistan Regional Government accused Iran of “targeting (the) Kurdistan Region multiple
times” in a statement on Twitter. “Silence” on the part of the international
community would only motivate “future attacks”, it added.
The Guards, in
their statement, said: “Once again, we warn the criminal Zionist regime that
the repetition of any mischief will face harsh, decisive and destructive
responses.”
Erbil Governor
Oumid Khouchnaw told a news conference that along with the taxi driver, a farm
custodian was also injured.
Speaking before
Iran claimed the attack, he dismissed as “baseless” any notion of Israeli sites
in and around Erbil.
“We’ve been
hearing for some time that Israeli sites are present,” he said. “There are no
Israeli sites in the region.”
He said the
missiles fell into vacant lots but that buildings and homes were damaged.
The interior
ministry in Erbil said a “new building” housing the US consulate in a
residential suburb of the city was the target of the attack.
Kurdistan24
television channel, located near the
US consulate, posted images on social
networks of its damaged offices, with collapsed sections of false ceiling and
broken glass.
Washington said
there was “no damage or casualties at any US government facility”.
“We condemn this
outrageous attack and display of violence,” a US State Department spokesperson
said.
The US embassy
in
Baghdad called it a “criminal attack” and said “Iranian regime elements” who
claimed responsibility “must be held accountable for this flagrant violation of
Iraqi sovereignty.”
Iran’s regional
rival
Saudi Arabia expressed “solidarity” with Iraq and support for any
measures “to protect its security and stability”.
‘Endanger’ nuclear agreement
Iraq saw a surge in rocket
and armed-drone attacks at the beginning of the year.
It coincided with the second anniversary of the
killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike near Baghdad
airport.
Soleimani, killed alongside his Iraqi lieutenant Abu
Mahdi Al-Muhandis, headed the
Quds Force, the Revolutionary Guards’ foreign
operations arm.
In late January, six rockets were fired at Baghdad
International Airport, causing no casualties.
Iran itself responded to the January 2020 killing of
Soleimani by firing missiles at military bases in Iraq housing US forces.
Sunday’s assault also comes amid a pause in negotiations
between Iran and world powers to revive its 2015 nuclear deal.
Negotiators in
Vienna said Friday they halted the
talks despite having almost sealed a deal to revive the accord.
The setback came after
Russia said it was demanding
guarantees that the Western sanctions imposed on its own economy amid the
conflict in Ukraine would not affect its trade with Iran.
The French foreign ministry condemned Sunday’s
missile attack in the “strongest terms” and said such actions “endanger the
efforts to enable a return” to the nuclear deal “to which Iran has been
contributing.”
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