Civilians were killed in attack condemned by U.S., France but not yet acknowledged by Israel

Iran fired missiles late Monday at what it claimed were Israeli “spy headquarters” near the U.S. Consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, and at targets linked to the extremist group Islamic State in northern Syria.

Four civilians were killed and six injured after missiles hit an upscale area near the consulate in Erbil, the seat of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, according to the security council of the Kurdish regional government.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said in a statement that it had hit a headquarters of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, in the Kurdish region of Iraq. Another statement said it had fired a number of ballistic missiles at “terrorist operations,” including Islamic State targets, in Syria and destroyed them.

Israel did not immediately acknowledge the attack in Erbil and its embassy in Washington did not return a request for comment on the Iranian allegation regarding the Mossad.

Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani described the strikes as a “crime against the Kurdish people” in which at least four civilians were killed and six injured.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos after the attack, Barzani said the Iranian allegations of an Israeli espionage base were groundless.

Iraq recalled its ambassador from Tehran, according to a statement by the country’s foreign ministry.

The strikes come at a time of heightened tensions in the region and fears of a wider spillover of the ongoing war in Gaza. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have launched frequent drone attacks on bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, which the groups have said was in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel, and in an attempt to force U.S. troops to leave the region.

In addition, Iran-backed militants in Yemen have fired missiles at commercial ships transiting the Red Sea.

The United States strongly condemns “Iran’s reckless missile strikes” in Erbil, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. France called the attack a “blatant, unacceptable and concerning violation” of Iraqi security.

Sitting on the edges of the Israel-Hamas war is what’s been called the Axis of Resistance, a loose coalition of Iran-backed entities, including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen. CBC chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault breaks down the conditions that could cause the group to engage in a wider war and the firepower behind it.

The full extent of the damage from the strikes could not be independently assessed. An Iraqi security official said Erbil was targeted with “several” ballistic missiles but did not give further details.

The paramilitary IRGC, which arose following Iran’s 1979 revolution, is considered a terrorist organization by a small number of Western countries, including the U.S.

Canada at present considers a branch of the IRGC, its expeditionary Quds Force, as a terrorist entity.

The IRGC downed a commercial plane carrying 176 people, including 55 Canadian citizens, in an errant missile attack in January 2020. Iran launched the attack in retaliation for the killing of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a drone attack by U.S. forces.

Iraq recalls ambassador

Peshraw Dizayi, a prominent local businessman with a portfolio that included real estate and security services companies, was killed in one of the Erbil strikes along with members of his family, according to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, by Mashan al-Jabouri, a former Iraqi member of parliament. Al-Jabouri said that one of the missiles had fallen on Dizayi’s “palace, next to my house, which is under construction on the road to the Salah al-Din resort.”

Other regional political figures also confirmed Dizayi’s death.

In 2022, Iran claimed responsibility for a missile barrage that struck in the same area near the sprawling U.S. Consulate complex in Erbil, saying it was retaliation for an Israeli strike in Syria that killed two members of its Revolutionary Guard.

Iran’s strike in northern Syria late Monday came after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility earlier this month for two suicide bombings targeting a commemoration for an Iranian general slain in a 2020 U.S. drone strike.

The attack in Kerman killed at least 84 people and wounded an additional 284 at a ceremony honouring Soleimani.

Last month, Iran accused Israel of killing a high-ranking Iranian general, Seyed Razi Mousavi, in an airstrike on a Damascus neighborhood.