“Twelve ballistic missiles” targeted Erbil and the American consulate in the capital of Kurdistan of Iraq, assured the Kurdish security forces in a press release. They claim that these missiles were fired “outside the borders of Iraq, more precisely from the east”.
Iraq shares its long eastern border with Iran, which enjoys an essential role both politically and economically with its Iraqi neighbor. The shootings did not cause any casualties, reported the local authorities, who were not able to identify these targets immediately.
After a long period of calm, an AFP correspondent in Erbil heard three explosions. “Several missiles have fallen on the city of Erbil,” said its governor Oumid Khouchnaw, quoted by the Iraqi news agency INA.
He assured that the target was “unknown”, specifying that at this stage it was impossible to say whether it is “the American consulate or the airport”, where there is a base of the international anti-jihadist coalition.
The local television channel Kurdistan24, whose studios are not far from the new premises of the American consulate, published on its social networks images of its damaged offices, with collapsed sections of the false ceiling and broken glass.
The Ministry of Health in Erbil assured that no casualties were to be deplored. The city’s airport said it suffered no damage, denying any disruption to flights.
“We condemn this terrorist attack launched against several sectors of Erbil, we call on the inhabitants to keep calm”, indicated in a press release the Prime Minister of Kurdistan Masrour Barzani.
Shots from an unknown source
Never claimed, rocket attacks or booby-trapped drones regularly target American interests and the troops of the international anti-jihadist coalition in Iraq, where pro-Iran armed groups are demanding the departure of American soldiers.
In late January, six rockets were fired at Baghdad International Airport, causing no casualties, the latest in a series of attacks generally blamed by Washington on pro-Iran Iraqi factions.
At the beginning of the year, the country had experienced a resurgence of this type of attack. Iran and several allied groups in the region were commemorating the second anniversary of the death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mehdi al-Mouhandis, killed by American drone fire in Iraq in January 2020.
In Erbil, the last such attack dates back to September, when “armed drones” targeted the airport.
These attacks also come in a tense post-election context, marked by endless negotiations to form a parliamentary coalition, elect a president and appoint a prime minister.
“Erbil under the fire of the losers”, reacted in a tweet the Shiite religious leader Moqtada Sadr, big winner of the October legislative elections, which saw the pro-Iran factions record a sharp decline.