According to Kurdish security forces, “twelve ballistic missiles” fired from outside Iraq on Sunday targeted Arbil, the city of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, and the US consulate there. A press release from the Kurdistan counter-terrorism unit stated, “The missiles were shot outside the borders of Iraq and Kurdistan, (coming) more specifically from the east.”
The incident resulted in some material damage but no casualties, according to the report. In Iraq, rocket and armed drone assaults have repeatedly attacked US interests and coalition soldiers. They have never been claimed, but they have been blamed on hard-line pro-Iran elements seeking the withdrawal of US forces by Western officials.
Missiles cause only material damages
Iran shares a long eastern border with Iraq and has significant political and economic clout in the country. There was “no damage or casualties at any US federal facility,” according to Washington. A State Department official stated, “We condemn this abhorrent attack and display of violence.” Kurdistan24, a local television station with studios near the US consulate, released photographs of their damaged offices on social media, including fallen parts of the fake ceiling and broken glass.
The airport in Arbil claimed no damage had occurred and that flights had not been affected. The US-led coalition combating the Islamic State has a facility there. In a statement, Kurdistan Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said, “We condemn this terrorist attack conducted against numerous sections of Arbil, and we appeal on the residents to remain calm.” There were no casualties, according to the health ministry in Arbil.
At the start of the year, Iraq experienced an increase in rocket and armed-drone strikes as Iran and its allies marked the second anniversary of the deaths of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mehdi al-Mouhandis, who was killed in Iraq by American drone fire in January 2020.
Six missiles were fired towards Baghdad International Airport in late January, but no one was hurt. The attack on Arbil comes nearly a week after two Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers were killed in Syria in an attack blamed on US ally Israel. The Islamic republic’s ideological army, the Revolutionary Guards, promised vengeance on Israel for the incident.