As many as 12 ballistic missiles struck the capital of the Kurdish region of Erbil in northern Iraq, with several of them reportedly falling near the US consulate.
A US official said the missiles were fired from neighboring Iran early Sunday morning, but there were no reports of casualties.
Iraqi and US officials gave different estimates of the damage. A U.S. official said there was no damage or casualties at any U.S. government site, and that there was no indication that the target was the new consulate building, which is currently unoccupied.
An Iraqi official in Baghdad initially stated that several rockets hit the consulate and that it was the target of the attack. Later, Louk Ghafari, head of Kurdistan’s foreign media agency, said that none of the missiles hit the US facility, but the areas around the complex were hit.
A spokesman for the US Department of Defense, who asked not to be named, said it was not known exactly how many rockets were fired and where they landed. A US State Department spokesman called it “an outrageous attack on Iraqi sovereignty and a display of violence.”
The Erbil Health Ministry said there were no casualties.
“Several rockets fell on the city of Erbil,” Erbil Governor Omid Khoshnav said, quoted by the Iraqi news agency INA.
The governor said it was unclear whether the intended target was the US consulate or the airport where the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State is based.
“We condemn this terrorist attack against several sectors of Erbil and urge the residents to remain calm,” Kurdistan Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said in a statement.
The attack came days after an Israeli strike near Damascus, killing two members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria.
Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted Iraqi media as admitting the attacks, without specifying where they came from.
Satellite TV channel Kurdistan24, located near the US consulate, went on air from their studio shortly after the attack, showing broken glass and debris on their studio floor.
In the past, US forces stationed at the Erbil International Airport complex have come under rocket and drone fire that US officials blame on Iran-linked militia groups, but there have been no such attacks for months.
A spokesman for the regional authorities said there were no flight disruptions at Erbil Airport.
There was no immediate statement of responsibility.
Residents of Erbil have posted videos on the Internet showing several powerful explosions, and some of them said that the explosions shook their houses. Reuters was unable to independently verify these videos.
Iraq has been rocked by chronic instability since the defeat of the Sunni Islamist group Islamic State in 2017 by a loose coalition of Iraqi, US-led and Iranian-backed forces.
Iraqi political parties, most of which have an armed wing, are also involved in tense negotiations to form a government after the October elections.
Shia militia groups close to Iran have privately warned that they would resort to violence if left outside any ruling coalition.
Among the main political enemies of these groups is their powerful Shia rival, the populist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has promised to form a government that will not have Iran’s allies and include Kurds and Sunnis.
The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report.