ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States on Sunday said there are no indications that the recent ballistic missile attack in the Kurdish capital was directed at the American consulate or bases housing their troops in the city, calling on Iran to halt its interference in Iraq’s internal affairs.
Under the pretext of hitting an Israeli base, Iran fired a dozen ballistic missiles targeting areas surrounding the US consulate building in Erbil early Sunday morning, injuring two civilians and causing severe material damage to houses.
Describing the attack as an “outrageous violation” of Iraq’s sovereignty, spokesperson for the US Department of State, Ned Price, said they “have no indications the attack was directed at the United States.”
"No US facilities were damaged or personnel injured," Price added.
In a follow-up statement sent to Rudaw by email, the state department reaffirmed its view that the US was not the intended target of the ballistic missile attack from Iran, saying that "press speculation otherwise is simply wrong."
"That does not obviate the reality - this was an outrageous attack by Iran on its neighbor. In this case, most if not all of the missiles were directed at a private Iraqi Kurdish citizen’s residential compound," the statement said, adding that the "United States stands with our Iraqi and Kurdish partners in the face of this terrible assault on Iraq."
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Sunday afternoon claimed responsibility for targeting "the strategic center of the Zionist conspiracy and evil by point-to-point missile," Iranian state media reported, without mentioning Erbil or the Kurdistan Region by name.
However, earlier in the morning, the media outlet reported the incident as an attack targeting “Mossad [Israeli intelligence] bases in Erbil.”
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) described the attack as “baseless,” denying the presence of Israeli bases in the city.
"Allegedly under the pretext of hitting an Israeli base near the US Consulate in Erbil, [the attack] targeted civilian locations, and its justification is only to hide the disgracefulness of such offense. We reiterate that the propaganda of the perpetrators of this attack is far from true," read a statement from the KRG.
None of the missiles landed in the US consulate. However, at least four missiles hit the property of the CEO and founder of the Iraqi-Kurdish oil company KAR Group, Baz Karim Barzinji.
The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported an anonymous IRGC source saying “the main target of the IRGC missiles was the Zionist headquarters, which is far from the American military bases.”
Karim manages many of the most important oil assets controlled by the KRG and is an influential actor in Iraq’s energy sector.
Israel and the Kurdistan Region enjoy friendly ties but do not have diplomatic missions in each other's countries.
Israel bought Kurdish oil in 2014 despite condemnation from Baghdad and threats to take legal action. The crude oil exports were sold in order to raise revenue within the Kurdistan Region for defense purposes when the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) was at its peak.
In 2017, Israel was the first country to endorse an independence referendum carried out in the Kurdistan Region. During the campaign rallies at the time, Kurdish people waved the Israeli flag in Erbil to express their appreciation for Israeli support.
In the same year, almost half of the oil extracted from Kurdish oil fields was exported to Israel, reported the Israeli news channel i24 at the time, while noting that Israeli buyers of Kurdish oil were mostly private companies who receive an average of approximately 300,000 barrels of oil daily.
Endangering nuclear talks
Sunday’s assault comes amid a pause in negotiations between Iran and world powers to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
The 2015 agreement gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, but the US unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump who reimposed heavy economic sanctions.
Negotiations to revive the deal began last year, leading to an increase in tensions between Iran and Israel.
Negotiators in Vienna said Friday they halted the talks despite having almost sealed a deal to revive the accord, reported AFP.
The French foreign ministry condemned the attack in the “strongest terms,” saying such actions could “jeopardize the efforts to enable a return” to the nuclear deal “to which Iran is contributing.”
“There is an absolute urgency to conclude the negotiations that began nearly a year ago and to put an end to such irresponsible and dangerous behavior,” it added.
Updated at 10:25 pm
