Iranian cruise missiles strike US base, alleged Israeli targets in Iraq

Iran has confirmed it fired 12 missiles from its territory that fell near the newly-constructed US consulate in Erbil in northwestern Iraq on Saturday night. The Iranians claim the attack was against Israeli agents in the area. A Kurdish TV studio was damaged in the attack.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday morning and said it was a response to an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria last week that reportedly killed two of Iran’s IRGC officers.

“Following the recent crimes of the fake Zionist regime [Israel] and the previous announcement that the crimes and evils of this infamous regime will not go unanswered; the ‘Strategic Center of Conspiracy and Evil of the Zionists’ was targeted last night by powerful and point-to-point missiles of the IRGC,” said its statement.

The Kurdistan Regional Government stated that the attack targeted civilian locations and that the claim that an Israeli base was targeted was being used “only to hide the disgracefulness of such offense.”

“We reiterate that the propaganda of the perpetrators of this attack is far from true,” said the Kurdistan Regional Government, adding that “Iran has repeated these attacks many times, and the silence of the international community in the face of these cowardly attacks will pave the way for their continuation.”

Lawk Ghafuri, a press spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said Sunday that only areas around the compound were hit.
“None of the missiles hit the new US consulate which is still under construction in Erbil,” Ghafuri said in a statement on Twitter, attributed to the Kurdistan Counter Terrorism Forces.

An unnamed US State Department spokesperson also confirmed no damage or casualties at any US government facility. The spokesperson added, “We condemn this outrageous attack and display of violence.”

The US Ambassador to Iraq Matthew Tueller said, “Elements of the Iranian regime claimed responsibility for this attack and they must be held accountable for this flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty and terrorist attacks on the property of innocent civilians.”