A dozen ballistic missiles launched from outside Iraq struck the northern Iraqi regional capital of Erbil on Sunday, Kurdish officials said, with no casualties.
(tla. / dpa / Reuters)
The capital of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, Erbil, was rocked by several explosions early on Sunday morning. According to reports from the authorities, several rockets hit the area, but only caused property damage. According to official information, no one was injured in the attacks, as reported by the Iraqi agency Ina. At first there was no reliable information about who had fired the rockets.
Iraqi state television quoted the Kurdistan Region’s anti-terrorist unit as saying that 12 rockets fired from outside Iraq had hit Erbil.
It was not immediately clear whether the rockets were aimed at the American consulate general or Erbil airport. A US State Department spokesman called the attack “egregious” but said no Americans were injured and there was no damage to US government facilities in Erbil.
US forces stationed at Erbil International Airport have come under fire in the past from missile and drone strikes that American officials blame on Iran-allied militias, but there have been no such attacks for several months. The last time ballistic missiles were aimed at US forces was in January 2020 — in Iranian retaliation for the killing of Iranian military commander Kassem Soleimani at Baghdad airport earlier in the month.
Two members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria on Monday, Iranian state media reported this week. The IRGC has sworn retaliation, it said. Kurdish officials did not immediately reveal where the rockets landed. A spokesman for the regional authorities said that there were no flight disruptions at Erbil Airport.