The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the “aggression against Iraq's sovereignty” after the Iranian strikes on the city of Erbil in the Kurdistan region in the north of the country, and threatened to resort to the Security Council.
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Iranian bombing of the city of Erbil is “an aggression against the country’s sovereignty and an insult to good neighborliness and the security of the region,” adding that it will take all legal measures, including submitting a complaint to the Security Council.
The United Nations mission in Iraq also “strongly” condemned the Iranian attack on Erbil, and called for “an end to attacks that violate Iraq's sovereignty.”
At dawn on Tuesday, the Security Council of the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq announced in a statement that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard launched a ballistic missile attack on several civilian areas in Erbil at 11:30 pm on Monday, killing 4 civilians and wounding 6 others.
For his part, he announced Revolutionary Guards The Iranian regime bombed what it described as “spy centers and gatherings of anti-Iranian terrorist groups” in Erbil with ballistic missiles, according to the official Iranian news agency IRNA.
The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, Masrour Barzani, strongly condemned these attacks, and confirmed in a post on his account on the X platform that his government would work to “stop these brutal attacks.”
Barzani called on the central government in Baghdad to take a firm stance against the “blatant violation” of the sovereignty of Iraq and the northern region.
He also called on their partners in the international community not to remain silent in the face of these repeated attacks, and said, “We will work in the coming days with our partners in the international community to stop these brutal attacks against our innocent people.”
It is noteworthy that the missile attacks targeted sites in an area about 40 kilometers from the city of Erbil in the Kurdistan region, in an area close to the American consulate and civilian housing.
American condemnation
America condemned the attacks, as State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement, “The United States strongly condemns the attacks launched by Iran on Erbil today (yesterday) and extends its condolences to the families of those killed. We oppose the reckless Iranian missile strikes that undermine the stability of Iraq.”
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson also denounced “a series of reckless and inaccurate strikes,” stressing that “no American crews or facilities were targeted” in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Bombing Syria
In addition to Iraq, Iran also bombed targets inside Syria, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the sound of violent explosions was heard in the city of Aleppo and its countryside, noting that “at least 4 missiles came from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea” and fell in the Aleppo countryside.
As for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, it said that it bombed “the gathering places of leaders and main elements of terrorists (…), especially ISIS (Islamic State), in the occupied territories in Syria.”
In its statement, the Revolutionary Guard said that its bombing of these sites in Syria came “in response to the recent atrocities of terrorist groups that led to the martyrdom of a group of our dear citizens in Kerman and Rask.”
On January 3, two suicide bombings occurred in the city of Kerman in southern Iran, near the shrine of the former commander of the Quds Force in the Revolutionary Guard, Major General Qassem SoleimaniDuring the ceremony commemorating the anniversary of his assassination by an American raid in Iraq, the two bombings, which were claimed by the Islamic State, resulted in the deaths of 90 people and dozens of injuries.