Iran’s Revolutionary Guards [IRGC] claimed responsibility for the Sunday missile attack on Iraq’s northern Kurdish city of Erbil, which it said came in retaliation for the killing of two of its guards earlier this week in Syria in an Israeli airstrike.
The IRGC said it targeted “an Israeli base”, confirming earlier reports by Iranian media, which said rockets targeted “secret training centers” allegedly belonging to Israel’s spy agency, Mossad.
Iran had warned Israel that it would “pay the price” for killing two of its guards in Syria, although it was not the first time IRGC members were killed in Israeli airstrikes during Syria’s decades-old conflict.
Twelve ballistic missiles rained on the capital of the self-autonomous Kurdistan region in the early hours of Sunday, but no casualties were reported.
Both the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan regional government denounced the attack, adding that “no foreign units” were bombed, in apparent denial of the presence of an Israeli base.
Read Also: Two Revolutionary Guards Killed in Israeli Syria strike, Iran Vows to Avenge
“The attacks on Erbil yesterday only targeted civilians residency sites, and no foreign unit or base have been targeted, and we ask the international community to investigate into the attack and show the truth for the entire world,” a statement by the Kurdistan Regional Government said.
Iranian state-run Network One TV earlier said that “Zionist spy centers” were targeted in missile strikes and not US bases.
“Zionist spy bases in the region are definitely targets of the Resistance Front, and as a revenge for martyrs’ blood these bases can be attacked at any moment,” one expert on West Asian affairs told Network One TV.
“Iraqi media quoted security sources as saying that these centers were Mossad’s modern training centers and were attacked by ballistic missiles,” Radio Iran (VIRI) also said.
The Wall Street Journal had also reported earlier that US officials believed Iran was the source of the missiles, but could not confirm this.
Iraq has been rocked by chronic instability since the defeat of the extremist Islamic State group in 2017 by a loose coalition of Iraqi, U.S.-led, and Iran-backed forces.
Iran-aligned militias have regularly attacked U.S. military and diplomatic sites in Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi officials say. Iran denies involvement in those attacks. Domestic politics have also fuelled violence.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
