Iran claimed responsibility for the missile attacks that exploded near the US consulate in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq on Monday night.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had attacked “spy headquarters and the gathering of anti-Iran terrorist groups” near Erbil, Kurdistan’s capital and most populous city.
Four civilians were killed and six wounded in the attack in which 10 missiles landed in the area near the US consulate, the Kurdish regional government’s security council said.
Among the dead were prominent local businessman Pershraw Dizayi and his relatives, former vice president of the Iraqi Kurdistan parliament, Hemin Hawrami, said in X.
A rocket hit the home of the billionaire, who has a large portfolio of real estate and security services companies and was close to the Kurdish ruler.
Pershraw Dizayi and his family members were among those killed in the blast. @visegrad24/X
Another rocket hit the home of a senior Kurdish intelligence official and a third hit a Kurdish intelligence center, Iraqi security sources told Reuters.
Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani called the rocket attacks a “crime against the Kurdish people.”
No U.S. facilities were hit or damaged, a U.S. official told the Associated Press.
Four civilians were killed and six wounded in the attack, the Kurdish regional government’s security council said.
Neither the new US consulate building nor the US troop base at Erbil international airport appeared to be the target.
But an unnamed official from an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia told the AP that 10 missiles launched by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard landed in the affluent area near the large new consulate.
A U.S. defense official who spoke to the outlet on condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not yet been made public said the United States had tracked the missiles and initial indications found them to be “reckless and inaccurate.”
Iran said it attacked the headquarters of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency in a statement claiming responsibility for the attacks.
“In response to the recent atrocities of the Zionist regime, which led to the assassination of Guard and Resistance Axis commanders… one of the main Mossad spy headquarters in the Iraqi Kurdistan region was destroyed with ballistic missiles,” the Guards said in a statement. .
In a separate but simultaneous attack, the Guards said they also attacked “terrorist operations” that included Islamic State targets in Syria “and destroyed them by firing a series of ballistic missiles.”
Iran had vowed to avenge the killing of three Guardsmen serving as military advisers in Syria last month.
No U.S. facilities were hit or damaged, a U.S. official told the Associated Press.
“We assure our nation that the Guards’ offensive operations will continue until the last drops of blood of the martyrs are avenged,” the Guards statement said.
Iran’s missile attacks come amid growing concerns that the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could spread to other parts of the region as tensions grow between allies on each side.
With post cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn