IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iraq recalled its ambassador from Tehran for consultations on Tuesday and summoned Iran's chargé d'affaires to Baghdad to protest Iranian attacks on northern Iraq that killed several civilians overnight, the Iraqi government said Foreign Ministry with.
The Iranian attack was “a blatant violation” of Iraq's sovereignty and “strongly contradicts the principles of good neighborliness and international law and threatens the security of the region,” the ministry said in a statement.
Iran fired missiles late Monday at an Israeli “spy headquarters” in an upscale neighborhood near the sprawling U.S. consulate compound in Erbil, the headquarters of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, as well as at targets affiliated with the extremist group Islamic State “ are connected to northern Syria.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said in a statement on Tuesday that it fired four rockets at IS positions in Syria's Idlib province and 11 rockets at the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, where they reportedly hit a center run by Israel's Mossad intelligence agency.
Qassim al-Araji, national security affairs adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani who heads a committee investigating the attack in Erbil, said Iran's claims that it targeted a Mossad headquarters were unfounded.
“There is no reason for these attacks and there is no excuse,” Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish region, said at a news conference in Davos as he attended the World Economic Forum on Tuesday. “These attacks should not go unanswered.”
The attacks came at a time of heightened tensions in the region and fears that the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza could spread further.
They also came after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility earlier this month for two suicide bombings that targeted a memorial ceremony for an Iranian general killed in a US drone strike in 2020. The attack in Kerman killed at least 84 people and injured 284 others at the ceremony honoring Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani.
Iranian state media quoted General Hassan Hassanzadeh, one of the Revolutionary Guard commanders, as saying Monday's strikes were in response to a demand from the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He added that they will continue their “action” until “the enemies regret” what they have done.
Also on Tuesday, Iran launched attacks with missiles and drones targeting bases of the militant group Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni militant group that operates largely across the border in nuclear-armed Pakistan, state news agency IRNA said. These reports were then suddenly removed without explanation.
Pakistan did not immediately acknowledge the attack.
Last month, Iran accused Israel of killing a senior Iranian general, Seyed Razi Mousavi, in an airstrike on a neighborhood in Damascus.
It was unclear whether the strikes in Syria had actually hit targets linked to the Islamic State group.
Mounir al-Mustafa, deputy director of civil defense in northwestern Syria, also known as the White Helmets, said one of the attacks in Idlib targeted a medical clinic in the village of Talteta in northwestern Idlib province that was no longer operational. Two civilians were slightly injured, he said.
Sami al-Qassim, who lives near the target site, said the clinic was empty and there was no militant activity in the area.
The Iranian attack in Irbil left at least four people dead, including Peshraw Dizayi, a prominent local businessman with a portfolio that included real estate and security services companies, and members of his family.
The United States condemned what State Department spokesman Matthew Miller called “Iran's reckless missile attacks.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a statement that the attacks in Iraq and Syria were “in line with the Islamic Republic's resolute defense of the country's sovereignty and security, combating terrorism and part of punishing those against it.” that threaten the security of the country.” ”
He said that Iran “identified the criminals' headquarters in a precise and targeted operation and targeted them with precise and precision-guided projectiles.”
A few hundred demonstrators gathered in Irbil on Tuesday to protest the attacks.
In northwestern Syria, a rocket attack on Tuesday morning hit an area housing teenage inmates of Sinaa prison in the city of Hassakeh, where hundreds of IS fighters are held. The U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which runs the prison, said the attack resulted in minor injuries and prompted an unsuccessful attempt to break out of the prison.
SDF spokesman Siamand Ali told The Associated Press: “We have no concrete information about who was behind the attack.”
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Albam reported from Taltela, Syria. Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Abdulrahman Zeyad in Baghdad, Abby Sewell and Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Amir Vahdat in Tehran contributed to this report.