By CHIMPREPORTS
By Al Jazeera
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has launched ballistic missiles at what it described as enemy sites in Erbil, a city in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, according to a statement carried by Iranian state media.
“Ballistic missiles were used to destroy espionage centres and gatherings of anti-Iranian terrorist groups in the region late tonight,” the statement said.
At least eight explosions were heard in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, early on Tuesday.
Air traffic at Erbil Airport was also halted, three security sources told the Reuters news agency.
A later IRGC statement, shared by Iran’s IRNA news agency, claimed the group had targeted the headquarters of Israeli spy agency Mossad in Erbil.
“This is a terrorist attack, an inhumane act that has been carried out against Erbil. Erbil will not be scared or shaken,” Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw said, according to the Iraqi news outlet Rudaw.
Four people were killed and six others wounded in the attack, according to the Kurdish region’s security council.
The prominent businessman Peshraw Dizayee, who was involved in property and security services, was among several civilians who were killed, the Kurdistan Democratic Party said.
Former Iraqi member of parliament Mashan al-Jabouri said that one of the missiles had fallen on Dizayee’s “palace, next to my house, which is under construction on the road to the Salah al-Din resort”. Several members of the businessman’s family were also thought to be among the dead.
The United States condemned the attacks.
“We oppose Iran’s reckless missile strikes, which undermine Iraq’s stability,” US Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. “We support the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s efforts to meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people.”
Two US officials told Reuters earlier that the strikes did not affect any US facilities and there were no US casualties.
The attacks come amid heightened fears that Israel’s continued military offensive in the Gaza Strip could lead to a wider regional escalation.
Since the Gaza war began in early October, US and allied forces have faced dozens of attacks in Iraq and Syria, which US President Joe Biden’s administration has blamed on Iran-affiliated armed groups.
The IRGC also said it launched missile attacks against the “perpetrators of terrorist operations in the Islamic Republic, particularly ISIL [ISIS]” in Syria, state media reported.
“The Guards identified and destroyed gathering places of their commanders and key elements with a series of ballistic missiles in response to the recent terrorist atrocities in Iran,” the statement said.
ISIL claimed responsibility for an attack in Iran’s southeastern city of Kerman earlier this month, which killed nearly 100 people.
Explosions were heard in Aleppo and its countryside, where “at least 4 missiles that came from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea” fell, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor.
Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem reported that “Iran has been trying, as much as possible, to distance itself from any kind of tension” in the region amid Israel’s war in Gaza, which began on October 7 and has killed more than 24,000 Palestinians.
“This is the first time we’re seeing the Iranians going a step further,” said Hashem, describing Tuesday’s attacks as a “new escalation”.
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