Iran Kills Several Civilians In Missile Attack On Irbil In Iraqi Kurdistan

(AFP)

 

The impact of the Gaza War continues to be felt throughout the Middle East. Recently Iran made a huge escalation when it launched missiles at Irbil and killed and wounded several civilians.

 

On January 15 Tehran fired several missiles at Irbil city. The first reports said Iran was targeting a base which housed U.S. troops. There is an airport and an airbase in the area that contain Americans which have been targeted by pro-Iran groups since October when the fighting in Gaza started.

 

Winthrop Rodgers who worked in Kurdistan for several years as an editor for NRT, a journalist and visiting professor at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani tweeted on X that the rockets didn’t land anywhere near any U.S. personnel or the American consulate in Irbil.

 

The next day the story was changed to Iran going after a Mossad headquarters in Irbil. The Iraqi government denied there was any such presence.

 

What is known is that the rockets landed on the house of a famous real estate developer and killed him and his family. Whoever the missiles were intended for the victims were innocent civilians.

 

This was a large step at widening the on-going crisis in the Middle East. Iran has been working with its proxies in Iraq and other countries to attack Israel, America and the West. This was the first time Tehran has been directly involved and it cannot be said to be a success. Killing some Kurds does not help its case that it is standing up for the Palestinians or defending itself. This could also point to greater intervention by Iran which will likely make things much worse.

 

SOURCES

 

Agence France Presse, “Baghdad challenges Iran’s claim that strikes targeted Israel’s intelligence service,” 1/16/24

 

Mahmoud, Sinan, “Iran fires ballistic missiles at targets in Iraq and Syria,” The National, 1/15/24

 

Rodgers, Winthrop, “a) where this strike took place is approx. 2.5 mi from the new US consulate compound (which isn’t open yet). Distance-wise, that’s like saying something happened “near the Lincoln Memorial” that actually happened in Clarendon.” X, 1/15/24

- “b) the currently operating consulate in Ankawa is even further away. In the Lincoln Memorial example, that’s like Tyson’s Corner. So that this happened “near” the US Coms is meaningful only in a vague sense. But again, Kurdish civilians were targeted and killed. That matters.” X, 1/15/24

- “Just a note about Erbil’s geography: 1) US says facilities w/ its personnel were not targeted. But Kurdish civilians were targeted and killed. That matters. 2) the focus on the strike being “near” the US consulate is misplaced for 2 reasons.” X, 1/15/24