Hail of Missiles Strikes Near US Consulate in Apparent Attack, Iran Calls It Retaliation
A ballistic missile attack launched by Iran struck near a complex of U.S. buildings in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil on Sunday. Although initial reports said the U.S. Consulate itself was hit, later reports indicated…
A ballistic missile attack launched by Iran struck near a complex of U.S. buildings in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil on Sunday.
Although initial reports said the U.S. Consulate itself was hit, later reports indicated differently, according to The Associated Press.
No injuries were reported in the attack, which took place at about 1:30 a.m. local time.
The AP, quoting two separate defense officials it did not name, said no U.S. buildings were damaged. The consulate building is unoccupied.
One Iraqi official initially said several missiles hit the consulate in Irbil and that it was the target of the attack. Irbil is the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
Lawk Ghafari, the head of Kurdistan’s foreign media office, said areas near the compound were hit.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the attack targeted an Israeli “strategic center of conspiracy” in Irbil, the AP reported.
The statement said the missile salvo was retaliation for an Israeli attack in Syria on Monday in which two Revolutionary Guards were killed, the AP reported.
The statement said Iran was warning Israel “once again that the repeating of its evil actions will be met with a firm and destructive response,” according to The New York Times.
The Times report, citing an Iraqi news outlet, said Iran was gunning for two Israeli intelligence facilities.
The Tasnim News Agency, affiliated with the Guards, claimed that 14 BM-21 Grad rockets also struck Irbil, according to the Times.
Prior to the attack, according to Reuters, Iran had said it would retaliate after the Israeli air raid. According to the Times, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards working with the terrorist group Hezbollah to improve the lethality of Hezbollah’s missile attacks on Israel.
Iran’s Fars news agency said the Revolutionary Guard Corps launched “powerful missiles” after as “recent crimes of the fake Zionist regime,” according to The Washington Post.
The Post report cited Kurdish authorities as saying 12 missiles hit, one a few kilometers from the consulate and one damaging a Kurd TV studio.
The Kurdistan Regional Council of Ministers said in a statement that the city was “subjected to a cowardly attack under the pretext of striking an Israeli base … but the target site was a civilian site, and this justification is aimed at concealing the motives of this heinous crime.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.