Politics

Iran fires ballistic missiles at US consulate in Iraq; state media claims ‘secret Israeli bases’ targeted

March 13, 2022 | | Print Article

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As many as a dozen ballistic missiles, believed to be launched from Iran, struck near the United States consulate in Erbil, Iraq early Sunday morning.

An Iraqi official in Baghdad had originally reported the missile strike had hit the consulate located in the northern Iraq region of Kurdistan. However, Lawk Ghafuri, Head of Kurdistan Foreign Media Relations indicated that the missiles had targeted the areas around the new compound in the capital of Kurdistan.

In a rather remarkable twist, the Times of Israel reported that the Iranian state media agency IRNA cited local reports “to claim without evidence that ‘secret Israeli bases’ were targeted in the attack.”

The AP reported that officials representing the U.S. and Iraq (who were not authorized to discuss the event) have both indicated the strike originated from Iran and Ghafuri suggested the same. In one post he reported that there were no casualties, only material damages and that the “ballistic missiles were launched from the eastern side of Iraq’s border.”

Iran is the only nation neighboring Iraq along its eastern border. The Kurdistan 24 news station that captured footage of the missile strike documented the effect from the nearby blast on their studio.

It is believed the attack may have been a retaliation after an Israeli strike in Syria eliminated two members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. However, United States Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of the U.S. forces in Iraq, has gone on record as saying the shift to a non-combative role in the region is not enough to satisfy Iran that still wishes to see Americans leave entirely.

Others have suggested in the wake of sanction waivers for Iran as part of efforts to get the 2015 nuclear deal agreed to and with tragic missteps on behalf President Joe Biden’s administration in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and in the handling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the enemies of the United States are sensing weakness.

 

Tensions have also been spiked since following a failed assassination attempt on Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi late 2021. Iranian proxies were assigned responsibility and they were also linked to an unsuccessful October 2021 drone strike against American troops stationed in Syria.

Al-Kadhimi released a statement calling the strike an “attack on the security” of the Iraqi people and assured the “security forces will investigate this attack and…address any prejudice to the security of [Iraqi] cities and the safety of [Iraqi] citizens.”

U.S. officials like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) have commented on the developing story calling this out as another in a series of ongoing attacks to pressure Americans to leave Iraq.

Rubio noted that there has not been confirmation yet of the objective of the strike, so if any response comes from the administration, it will likely be after further information is uncovered.

However, a delayed response only bolsters the perception that Biden can be pushed around as he has been unsuccessful at squaring away deals from foreign nations on oil production in light of the decreased supply from Russia. Meanwhile, as Iran appears to be aiming strikes at U.S. consulates and Russia has been undeterred by sanctions, his administration continues to meet with both on the nuclear deal.

 

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Kevin Haggerty
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