Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they attacked espionage centers and "gatherings of anti-Iranian terrorist groups" near Iraq's northern city of Erbil with ballistic missiles, Iranian state media said late on Monday.
Main square in front of the citadel, Erbil, Kurdistan © Mena Today
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they attacked espionage centers and "gatherings of anti-Iranian terrorist groups" near Iraq's northern city of Erbil with ballistic missiles, Iranian state media said late on Monday.
Explosions were heard in an area some 40 kilometers northeast of Erbil in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, three security sources said, in an area near the U.S. consulate as well as civilian residences.
Two dead and five wounded civilians had been brought to a local hospital after the explosions, two medical sources said.
Air traffic at Erbil airport was halted, the security sources said.
"Ballistic missiles were used to destroy espionage centers and gatherings of anti-Iranian terrorist groups in the region late tonight,” Iran’s Guards said in a statement.
Iran has in the past sometimes carried out strikes in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, saying the area is used as a staging ground for Iranian separatist groups as well as agents of its arch-foe Israel.
Baghdad has tried to address Iranian concerns over separatist groups in the mountainous border region, moving to relocate some members as part of a security agreement reached with Tehran in 2023.
Reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai and Timour Azhari in Baghdad
US forces ended their mission in Iraq on Wednesday after more than two decades of war there, raising fears of a security vacuum that would embolden Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias and allow Islamic State to regroup.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi received US feedback via Qatari mediators in Doha on Tuesday on a seven-day plan aimed at building trust between Washington and Tehran, with sequencing the main sticking point, an official, who was not Iranian butwas briefed on the talks, told Reuters.
US forces are set to withdraw on Wednesday from their last bases in Iraq, a departure celebrated as a victory by Iran and its allies, which have deep influence in the country where 4,500 Americans died during more than two decades of war.
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