Missiles From Iran Strike Near U.S. Consulate In Northern Iraq – ‘Secret Israeli Bases’ Targeted

BAGHDAD – Iran claimed responsibility Sunday for a barrage of ballistic missiles that hit northern Iraq just after midnight, striking several kilometers from a U.S. compound and drawing sharp condemnation from the Iraqi and U.S. capitals.

Iranian state media agency IRNA, citing local reports, claimed without evidence that “secret Israeli bases” were targeted in the attack.

The semiofficial Fars news agency said that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps had launched “powerful missiles” in response for what it described as “recent crimes of the fake Zionist regime,” an apparent reference to the killing of two of its members last week in Syria, which it has blamed on Israel.

The attack appeared to mark a significant escalation in proxy and political conflicts on Iraqi soil as talks between Iran and the United States over the future of a 2015 nuclear deal shattered by President Donald Trump falter.

Landing at 1:30 a.m. local time, the strikes lit up the night sky and sent booms rolling through the Kurdish region’s capital, Irbil. Kurdish authorities said that they had counted 12 missiles, causing damage to buildings and cars, but no casualties.

One landed several kilometers from a new and sprawling U.S. Consulate compound that remains under construction, officials said. Another landed close to the Kurdistan24 television news channel. A newsroom was damaged and a television studio carpeted in shattered glass, photographs showed.

The U.S. State Department condemned the attacks as “outrageous.” Iraqi officials also issued harsh statements. Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi described the strikes as “an attack on the security of our people.” Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, said that it would “stand strong against cowardly attacks.”

But until Iran claimed the strikes itself, senior Iraqi officials refrained from citing the attacker by name, reflecting deep sensitivities over Iran’s role in Iraq, where its economic and political power are strong.

The exact targets of Sunday morning’s missile strikes were unclear. The Iranian statement indicated that missiles were aimed at sites linked to Israel’s intelligence services. Kurdish authorities denied that they existed, but published no photographs of any of the 12 blast sites.

“Erbil was subjected to a cowardly attack under the pretext of striking an Israeli base near the U.S. consulate in Erbil, but the target site was a civilian site, and this justification is aimed at concealing the motives of this heinous crime,” the Kurdistan Regional Council of Ministers said in a statement.

In a statement, a State Department official said no U.S. government buildings were damaged and no Americans hurt. The Pentagon referred questions to the State Department, which did not immediately respond to them.

No U.S. troops were injured by the strikes in Irbil, according to an initial assessment provided by a senior defense official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. Although U.S. combat troops have withdrawn from Iraq, some military and intelligence personnel still operate at a complex inside Irbil’s international airport.

Sunday’s attack comes at a sensitive moment in Iraqi politics and at a pivotal time in the United States’ relationship with Iran.

On the international stage, talks between the United States and Iran aimed at reviving a 2015 nuclear deal between both nations were suspended indefinitely earlier this week after Russia, another participant, sought concessions related to its commercial dealings with Tehran.

Disagreements between the United States and Iran probably contributed to the setback, officials have said, including over the extent to which the Biden administration is willing to drop terrorism designations for the Revolutionary Guard Corps and other groups, as well as terms for an expected prisoner exchange.

In Baghdad and Irbil, delicate and drawn-out negotiations over who will form the country’s new government appear to be drawing to a close. Iran, traditionally a kingmaker, has struggled to assert itself over the process as Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has tried to exclude its allies, Iraqi officials and analysts say.

Irbil’s ruling Kurdish Democratic Party is one of Sadr’s major partners in that effort. In a statement posted to Twitter early Sunday, the cleric urged “forbearance until the achievement of a national majority government.”

Iraqi militia groups backed by Iran have frequently launched rocket and drone strikes on U.S.-linked targets in Iraq and Syria. A spate of attacks in January did not cause casualties among U.S. service members and were clustered around the second anniversary of a U.S. decision to assassinate revered Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani with a drone strike as his convoy left Baghdad’s airport.

Although U.S. officials initially claimed that attack had legal basis, citing Soleimani’s alleged role in imminent attack planning, no further evidence was provided, and the strike pushed Washington and Tehran to the brink of war on Iraqi soil.

That operation triggered an Iranian ballistic missile attack on an Iraqi air base, with dozens of U.S. troops suffering brain injuries. The strike on Soleimani’s convoy sparked outrage in Iraq, prompting parliament to urge the expulsion of U.S. forces as street protesters decried the role of Washington and Tehran in turning their country into a proxy battleground.

(c) 2022, The Washington Post · Louisa Loveluck, Alex Horton 

{Matzav.com}