IRBIL, Iraq — Iraq recalled its ambassador from Tehran for consultations and summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Baghdad on Tuesday in protest over Iranian strikes on northern Iraq that killed a number of civilians in a single day, the Iraqi International Ministry mentioned.
The Iranian assault was “a blatant violation” of Iraq’s sovereignty and “strongly contradicts the ideas of fine neighborliness and worldwide legislation, and threatens the safety of the area,” the ministry mentioned in an announcement.
Iran fired missiles late Monday at what it mentioned have been Israeli “spy headquarters” in an upscale neighborhood close to the sprawling U.S. Consulate compound in Irbil, the seat of Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish area, and at targets linked to the extremist Islamic State group in northern Syria.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard mentioned in an announcement Tuesday that it launched 4 missiles at IS positions in Syria’s Idlib province and 11 missiles on the Kurdish area in northern Iraq, the place it mentioned it hit a middle of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence company.
Qassim al-Araji, the adviser for nationwide safety affairs to Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani who’s heading a committee investigating the assault in Irbil, mentioned Iran’s “claims of focusing on a Mossad headquarters are baseless.”
“There isn’t a motive for these assaults and there’s no excuse,” Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish area, mentioned in a information convention in Davos whereas attending Tuesday the World Financial Discussion board. “These assaults mustn’t stay with out a response.”
The strikes got here at a time of heightened tensions within the area and fears of a wider spillover of the continued conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
In addition they got here after the Islamic State group claimed accountability earlier this month for 2 suicide bombings focusing on a commemoration for an Iranian basic slain in a 2020 U.S. drone strike. The assault in Kerman killed no less than 84 folks and wounded 284 others on the ceremony honoring Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Iranian state media quoted Gen. Hassan Hassanzadeh, one of many commanders of the Revolutionary Guard, as saying that Monday’s strikes have been a response to a requirement made by the nation’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Final month, Iran accused Israel of killing a high-ranking Iranian basic, Seyed Razi Mousavi, in an airstrike on a Damascus neighborhood.
It was unclear whether or not the strikes in Syria had, the truth is, hit any targets related to the Islamic State group.
Mounir al-Mustafa, deputy director of the civil protection in northwest Syria, often known as the White Helmets, mentioned one of many strikes in Idlib focused a medical clinic that was now not working within the village of Talteta in northwest Idlib province. Two civilians suffered minor accidents, he mentioned.
Sami al-Qassim, who lives close to the focused website, mentioned the clinic was empty and there have been no militant actions within the space.
The Iranian strike in Irbil killed no less than 4 folks, amongst them Peshraw Dizayi, a outstanding native businessman with a portfolio that included actual property and safety companies firms, together with members of his household.
The US condemned what State Division spokesperson Matthew Miller described as “Iran’s reckless missile strikes.”
Iranian International Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani mentioned in an announcement that the strikes in Iraq and Syria have been “in keeping with the resolute protection of the nation’s sovereignty and safety, countering terrorism, and a part of the Islamic Republic’s punishment in opposition to those that threaten the nation’s safety.”
He mentioned that Iran in “a exact and focused operation, recognized the headquarters of the criminals and focused them with correct and precision-guided projectiles.”
Just a few hundred demonstrators gathered in Irbil on Tuesday to protest the assaults.
In northwest Syria, a missile strike Tuesday morning hit an space housing teenage detainees on the Sinaa jail within the metropolis of Hassakeh, the place a whole bunch of IS fighters are jailed. The U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which operates the jail, mentioned the strike brought on minor accidents and sparked an unsuccessful jail break try.
SDF spokesman Siamand Ali instructed The Related Press that “we’ve no particular info on who was behind the assault.”
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Albam reported from Taltela, Syria. Related Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Abdulrahman Zeyad in Baghdad, Abby Sewell and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, contributed to this report.