Iran claims revenge on Israel with missile strike on Iraqi city of Arbil

Iran fired at least a dozen missiles into the Iraqi city of Arbil, striking areas close to a new United States consulate.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed that Sunday morning’s attack was targeting bases being used by for training by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.

In a statement issued through the Iranian media, the IRGC said it had carried out the attack in “revenge” for an Israeli airstrike that killed four people, including two of its colonels, in Syria last week.

The missiles fell short of the consulate, a sprawling complex that has yet to be occupied by American staff. There was damage to a TV studio, although there were no reports of injuries.

“The strategic centre of the Zionist conspiracy and evil was targeted by IRGC missiles,” it said. “Following the recent crimes of the fake Zionist regime, the strategic centre for conspiracy and evil of the Zionists was targeted by powerful missiles and the [might] of the IRGC.”

Iranian media claimed that two Mossad bases had been targeted. There is no known Israeli presence in the semi-autonomous Kurdish area of Iraq, of which Arbil is the capital. Israel has not commented on Iran’s claims.

The US State Department said that it “strongly condemns the missile strikes . . . that emanated from Iran” as an “outrageous violation of Iraq’s sovereignty”.

It added that no US facilities were damaged or Americans injured, and that it did not believe the missile strikes were directed at US interests. Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of the region, called it a cowardly attack, and Iraq’s national government summoned Iran’s ambassador to explain.

Professor Eyal Zisser, a Middle East expert at Tel Aviv University, said the attack was consistent with the Iranian strategy to use the US as a go-between to put pressure on Israel, drawing the US into Iran’s shadow war with Israel.

“The Syrian regime is reluctant to support Iranian aggression and doesn’t want to be drawn into a conflict, so as long as Americans aren’t being killed, it’s a strategic approach to show that Iran can commit such attacks in response to Israeli aggression,” he said.

“However, Iran says Israel is targeting its men and this week Israel crossed a red line when it killed two Iranians.” Zisser said that “in lieu of a direct response, the easiest next step was to find a nearby target”.

It is the first time since January 2020 that ballistic missiles have been directed at or near a US facility by Iran, when an attack on the al-Asad airbase injured more than 100 servicemen — in retaliation for the US killing of Major General Qasem Soleimani, the leader of the IRGC’s elite Quds Force.

Jason Brodsky, the policy director of the United Against Nuclear Iran think tank, said that the strike showed the historically fraught relationship between the US and Iran.

 “The attack is a significant escalation as it came from Iran proper, involved multiple ballistic missiles and didn’t involve its militias,” he said.

“Tehran is testing Washington. In the past, Iran and its proxies have targeted US forces and interests in response to Israeli strikes in Syria, most recently in October,” he added — a reference to a drone attack at the al-Tanf US military base in Syria after an Israeli strike.

“The Iranian system felt it could get away with striking a US target but not directly an Israeli target in a revenge attack. I think this logic holds in the Arbil operation as well.”

The attack came days after attempts to revive the Obama-era US-Iran deal limiting Tehran’s nuclear programme stalled after Russian negotiators pushed for new curbs on the amount of oil that Iran could sell. The delay followed earlier positive statements of an “imminent” new agreement.

The Biden administration decided last July to end the US combat mission in Iraq by the end of December and US forces have gradually moved to an advisory role, with troops still providing air support and other military aid for Iraq’s fight against the Islamic State.

General Ramezan Sharif, the IRGC spokesman, had warned that Israel would “receive decisive responses” to the killings.

The two IRGC colonels were given a large public funeral where threats were made of revenge with a high-level regime presence, including the commander-in-chief of the IRGC as well as its Aerospace Force commander.

Iran has a long history of launching missile strikes at US targets in Iraq and the timing of the latest attacks would suggest multiple objectives (Michael Evans writes).

While the missiles did not hit the consulate, any military action against the US in Iraq at a time when the main focus is on the invasion of Ukraine might be seen as a chance to catch the American military off-guard. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who confirmed responsibility, may have taken that into account.

However, the main reason appears to be revenge for an Israel airstrike in Syria last week that killed four people including two members of the IRGC. Iranian media later said the missiles targeted Mossad bases, but there is no evidence the Israeli intelligence agency has a permanent presence there.

There are many potential targets in Arbil for Iranian missiles. The US is building a consulate complex about eight miles outside the city in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Arbil airport is a key location for US forces and CIA operations.

Missile strikes from Iran and IRGC-backed proxy militias inside Iraq have posed a persistent threat for the US for decades.

Such strikes also have a leverage objective aimed at providing Iran with ammunition to confront the US on disputes between Tehran and Washington, such as the stalled negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. The attack in Arbil could be a new obstacle to hopes of a revised deal.

Iran has not hesitated to launch missile strikes from Iranian territory with longer-range weapons, the most deadly of which was in January 2020 against the US and Iraqi military base at al-Asad in Anbar province, western Iraq. The strikes were in revenge for the killing by a US armed drone of Major-General Qasem Soleimani, the head of the IRGC’s Quds Force, the clandestine extraterritorial military organisation.