Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched missiles at what it called Israel’s “spy headquarters” close to the U.S. Consulate in a northern Iraqi city, state media reported, with the force also claiming to have struck targets associated with ISIS in Syria.
Four civilians were killed and six others injured in Erbil, in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, according to the Kurdish regional government’s security council. The strikes come amid fears across the Middle East of Israel’s war against Hamas turning into a wider international conflagration. It is the first time Iran has launched attacks directly, after relying on proxies such as Hezbollah and the Houthis—known collectively as the Axis of Resistance—to fire missiles at Israeli or U.S. targets.
“In response to the recent atrocities of the Zionist regime, causing the killing of commanders of the Guards and the Axis of Resistance... one of the main Mossad espionage headquarters in Iraq’s Kurdistan region was destroyed with ballistic missiles,” the Guards said in a statement referring to the Israeli intelligence agency, Reuters reports.
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Iraq’s foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned Iran’s “aggression” and said it would file a complaint at the United Nations Security Council over the attacks in a residential area which caused civilian casualties.
The U.S. Central Command also announced Tuesday that two U.S. Navy SEALs previously reported lost at sea had been taking part in a ship-boarding operation last week off the coast of Somalia after the vessel was suspected of carrying Iranian-made weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen. Iran-manufactured components for Houthi missiles were discovered and seized from the ship, the U.S. military said, adding that an “exhaustive search” is being conducted for the missing SEALs.
“The United States strongly condemns Iran’s attacks in Erbil today and offers condolences to the families of those who were killed,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement after the strikes in Iraq. “We oppose Iran’s reckless missile strikes, which undermine Iraq’s stability. We support the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s efforts to meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people.”
The Guards also said they “fired a number of ballistic missiles in Syria and destroyed the perpetrators of terrorist operations” in Iran, including the so-called Islamic State. The Islamist group had claimed responsibility for a bombing this month which killed 86 people at a memorial procession for Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the former head of the Guards’ elite Quds Force. Soleimani was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in 2020.
Iran’s proxy groups have carried out scores of attacks on U.S. military installations in both Iraq and Syria since Israel’s war against Hamas erupted in October. Israeli strikes in Gaza have so far killed over 23,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, in a devastating campaign launched after Hamas gunmen killed 1,200 people in Israel, according to Israeli figures.
On Tuesday, mere hours after the Guards’ missile attack, three armed drones were shot down over Erbil airport, according to Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service. American and other international forces are stationed at the airport. The service did not disclose details of damage or casualties in the incident.
No group has yet to claim responsibility for the attack, though a group of Iran-linked Iraqi militias operating together as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, has previously claimed to have been behind similar assaults.
The strikes in Iraq and Syria also come amid rising tensions in the Red Sea, where Houthi militants—who are also backed by Iran—have attacked international shipping out of a professed support for Palestine.
The group unsuccessfully launched a missile at an American warship over the weekend and struck a U.S.-owned cargo ship Monday in the Gulf of Aden, though American military officials said there were no reported injuries or significant damage on the vessel. The U.S. and U.K. conducted airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen last week after repeated warnings to the group to end its attacks to shipping in the region.
