Iraq’s foreign ministry has summoned its Ambassador to Tehran, Naseer Abdul Mohsen, back to Baghdad in response to Iran’s attacks on northern Erbil.
The Ambassador was summoned “for the purpose of consultations against the backdrop of the recent Iranian attacks on Erbil, which led to the fall of a number of martyrs and wounded.”
Iran’s foreign ministry earlier said it “respects Iraq’s territorial integrity”, but will not hesitate to use its “legitimate and legal right” to act against those threatening its national security.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that it targeted Israel’s “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and also struck in Syria against the armed group ISIL (ISIS) in revenge.
A US defence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the US tracked the missiles, which hit in northern Iraq and northern Syria, and initial indications were that the strikes were “reckless and imprecise”.
The strikes in northern Syria came after IS claimed responsibility earlier this month for two suicide bombings targeting a commemoration for an Iranian General slain in a 2020 US drone strike.
That attack killed at least 84 people and wounded an additional 284.
Iran promised payback for the killing of three IRGC members in Syria last month, including a senior general, who served as military advisers there.
“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 IRGC said in a statement.
It added, “We assure our nation the Guards’ offensive operations will continue until avenging the last drops of martyrs’ blood.”
Iraq’s government condemned the Iranian strikes on the northern city of Erbil in the autonomous Kurdistan region that killed four civilians.
In a foreign ministry statement, Iraq’s government denounced the “attack on its sovereignty” and said that it would take legal measures, including filing a complaint at the UN Security Council, to hold Iran accountable.
Iraq’s Kurdish Prime Minister, Masrour Barzani condemned the attack on Erbil as a “crime against the Kurdish people,” accusing Iran of killing innocent civilians in its missile strikes.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Barzani said the Iranian allegations of an Israeli spy centre in the area are “baseless.”
“Now is not the time for US forces to withdraw from Iraq,” Barzani said.
He averred, “The U.S is in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government to fight terrorism. We do not think terrorism is over in Iraq.”
The Kurdistan government’s security council announced that at least four civilians were killed and six injured in the strikes on Erbil.
Multimillionaire Kurdish businessman, Peshraw Dizayee and several members of his family were among the dead, killed when at least one rocket crashed into their home.
Iran’s Missile Strikes Condemned
France accused Iran of violating Iraq’s sovereignty after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed to have struck a “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
“Such acts represent blatant, unacceptable and worrying violations of Iraq’s sovereignty and an attack on its stability and security, as well as that of Kurdistan within it,” France’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
It added, “They contribute to the escalation of regional tensions and must stop.”
Additionally, US state department Spokesperson, Matthew Miller said that an Iranian attack near Iraq’s northern city of Erbil “undermine Iraq’s stability.”
“We oppose Iran’s reckless missile strikes,” Miller said, adding that the U.S supported “the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s efforts to meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people.”
No U.S facilities were affected by the missiles strikes.