Missiles strike near US consulate in north Iraq

As many as 12 missiles struck Iraq’s northern city of Irbil on Sunday near the US consulate, Iraqi security officials said. A US defense official said missiles had been launched at the city from neighboring Iran, Report informs via the Associated Press.

No injuries were reported. Officials in Iraq and the US gave different accounts of the strike and the damage it caused. A second US official said there was no damage at any US government facility and that there was no indication the target was the consulate building, which is new and currently unoccupied.

An Iraqi official in Baghdad at first said several missiles had hit the US consulate and that it was the target of the attack. Later, Lawk Ghafari, the head of Kurdistan’s foreign media office, said none of the missiles hit the US facility but that areas around the compound had been hit by the missiles.

The US defense official said it was still not certain exactly how many missiles were fired and exactly where they landed. Neither US official was authorized to discuss the event by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The Iraqi security officials said there were no immediate report of casualties from the attack, which they said occurred shortly after midnight and caused material damage in the area. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

One of the Iraqi officials said the ballistic missiles were fired from Iran, without elaborating. The US officials could not confirm the type of missile.

The second US official said the incident was being investigated by the government of Iraq and the Kurdish Regional Government. The US condemned what it called an “outrageous attack against Iraqi sovereignty and display of violence,” the official said in a statement.

The attack came several days after an Israeli strike near Damascus, Syria, killed two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Iran’s foreign ministry strongly condemned the attack Wednesday and vowed revenge.

On Sunday, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted Iraqi media acknowledging the attacks in Irbil, without saying where they originated.