2024-01-16 11:28:02
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iraq recalled its ambassador in Tehran and summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires in Baghdad on Tuesday to protest Iranian attacks in northern Iraq that killed several civilians overnight, according to the ministry. Iraqi Foreign Ministry.
The Iranian attack was “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq, categorically contradicts the principles of good neighborliness and international law and threatens the security of the region,” he said in a statement.
Iran launched several missiles on Monday at what it described as an Israeli “spy headquarters” in an affluent neighborhood near the large U.S. consulate complex in Irbil, capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, and at targets associated with the group. extremist Islamic State in northern Syria.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard said in a statement on Tuesday that it had launched four Kheibar missiles once morest IS group positions in Idlib, Syria, and 11 precision ballistic missiles once morest the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, where it said it hit a Mossad center. , the Israeli intelligence agency.
The attacks came following the IS group this month claimed responsibility for two suicide attacks once morest a memorial to an Iranian general killed in 2020 in a US drone strike. At least 84 people were killed and 284 injured in the attack in Kerman on an event in memory of Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani.
Iran last month accused Israel of killing a top Iranian general, Seyed Razi Mousavi, in an airstrike on a Damascus neighborhood.
It was unclear whether the strikes in Syria had actually hit targets associated with the IS group.
Mounir al-Mustafa, deputy head of civil defense in northwestern Syria, a group also known as the White Helmets, said one of the attacks in Idlib had hit a clinic that was no longer operational in the province’s Talteta village. northwestern Idlib. Two civilians suffered minor injuries, he said.
Sami al-Qassim, who lives near the site, said the clinic was empty and there was no militant activity in the area.
The attack in Irbil killed at least four people, including Peshraw Dizayi, a well-known local businessman who had businesses in real estate and security companies, as well as members of his family.
The United States condemned what State Department spokesman Matthew Miller described as “reckless Iranian missile attacks.”
Nasser Kanaani, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said in a statement that the attacks in Iraq and Syria were “in line with the firm defense of the country’s sovereignty and security, once morest terrorism and as part of the punishment of the Republic.” “Islamic once morest those who threaten the security of the country.”
The spokesman stated that his country had “identified the criminals’ headquarters in a precise and targeted operation and attacked them with reliable, precision-guided projectiles.”
A few protesters gathered in Irbil on Tuesday to protest the attacks.
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Albam reported from Taltela, Syria. Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Abdulrahman Zeyad in Baghdad and Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.
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