Twelve "ballistic missiles" fired "outside the borders of Iraq, and more precisely from the east", targeted the American consulate in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, on Sunday March 13, without causing any casualties, said Kurdish security forces.

Iraq shares its long eastern border with Iran, which plays an essential political and economic role with its Iraqi neighbour.

But in Iraq, it is generally the firing of rockets or booby-trapped drones, never claimed and on a smaller scale, which target American interests and the troops of the international anti-jihadist coalition.

Washington accuses pro-Iran Iraqi factions, which are demanding the departure of American soldiers.

Before dawn on Sunday, an AFP correspondent in Erbil, northern Iraq, heard three explosions.

The attack was carried out with "twelve ballistic missiles fired against a district of Erbil and which targeted the American consulate", according to a statement from the Kurdistan counter-terrorism unit.

"The missiles were fired outside the borders of Iraq and Kurdistan, (coming) more precisely from the east" of the country.

"There are no human losses, only material damage," the statement added.

For his part, a spokesman for the US State Department assured that there was “no damage or casualty at any US government facility”.

The local television channel Kurdistan24, whose studios are not far from the new premises of the American consulate, published on its social networks images of its damaged offices, with collapsed sections of the false ceiling and broken glass.

چركه ساتی پهلامارهكهی سهر ههولێر و # كوردستان # اربيل #iraq #irak # kurdistan24 # kurdistan24 #erbil #hawler # كردستان 24 https://t.co/aqr0no3wqx pic.twitter.com/rmxm3goihw

— Kurdistan24 (@kurdistan24tv) March 13, 2022

"We condemn this terrorist attack launched against several sectors of Erbil, we call on the inhabitants to remain calm," Kurdistan Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said in a statement.

Regional tensions

The shootings against Erbil come nearly a week after the death in Syria of two senior officers of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, killed in an attack attributed to Israel.

"The Zionist regime (Israel, editor's note) will pay for this crime," the Guardians promised in a statement on Tuesday.

In January 2020, Iran fired missiles into Iraq at bases housing American soldiers, in retaliation for the assassination by Washington of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani carried out a few days earlier on Iraqi territory.

In half an hour, 22 Iranian surface-to-surface missiles had thus fallen on the bases of Aïn al-Assad (west) and Erbil (north).

Sunday's attack also comes at a time when talks on Iran's nuclear power, about to conclude, were abruptly suspended, following new demands from Moscow.

With AFP

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