Iranian TV said that the missile strikes on Erbil targeted secret Israeli bases, which belies the story of the United States, which said it targeted its consulate in the city.
On Sunday, the Iranian TV correspondent in Iraq reported that the missile attacks on Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, targeted "secret Israeli bases."
Washington had said earlier that the bombing targeted its consulate in Erbil, and took the initiative to blame Tehran.
The US State Department explained to Al Jazeera that the attack on the US consulate in Erbil did not leave casualties or damage.
However, the Ministry of Interior indicated - in a statement - that the attack resulted in one person being slightly injured.
"We condemn the outrageous attack on our consulate in Erbil, and the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities are investigating the incident," the State Department said.
The director of Al-Jazeera office in Erbil, Ahmed Al-Zawiti, stated that the missile strikes targeted the new US consulate building in Erbil on the Salah al-Din resort, while the Anti-Terrorism Directorate in Iraqi Kurdistan indicated that 12 ballistic missiles were fired at Erbil from outside Iraq.
Reuters quoted a US official as saying that the missiles that targeted Erbil in Iraq were launched from Iran.
The Washington Post, citing an Iraqi official, revealed that the missiles were launched from Iran.
The Iraqi News Agency quoted the governor of Erbil, Omid Khoshnaw, as saying that several missiles fell on Erbil.
State television quoted the Minister of Health in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Saman Barzanji, as saying that the Erbil explosions did not result in casualties or injuries.
Explosions sounded
Al-Zawiti said that unofficial sources indicated that these explosions are not similar to the previous ones, as the sources of the bombing were geographically remote, in addition to hearing violent explosions in separate places inside and outside the city of Erbil, causing panic among the citizens.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi condemned these bombings, and confirmed, in a telephone conversation with the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Masrour Barzani, the start of an investigation to find out the sources of this bombing and the parties behind it.
The US forces stationed in the Erbil International Airport complex have been subjected to missile and drone attacks in the past, and US officials have blamed them on armed factions allied with Iran, but such attacks have not occurred for months.
The last time US forces were attacked with ballistic missiles was in January 2020, in an Iranian response to the US killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad airport earlier that month.
No US military was killed in the 2020 attack, but many suffered head injuries.