BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi visited on Monday the site of a missile attack claimed by Iran, which hit near the US consulate in the northern city of Erbil. Earlier, Al Kadhimi arrived in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s northern autonomous region of Kurdistan and held a meeting with the region’s prime minister Masrour Barzani.
“We’re in absolute agreement that the repeated attacks on Iraq’s sovereignty must stop,” Barzani wrote on Twitter, describing the attack as “despicable.”
Afterwards, Al Kadhimi and other officials inspected the site of the attack, according to Al Kadhimi’s office.
A dozen missiles from outside Iraq struck Erbil on Sunday, resulting in material damage without causing casualties.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) claimed that an Israeli intelligence base was the target and that the attack was in retaliation for suspected Israeli attacks in the Syrian capital Damascus that killed two Iranians last week.
Israel which is a major ally of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, who has faced an armed rebellion to unseat him since 2011.
Iraq had previously seen a series of attacks targeting facilities hosting US military personnel. Washington blamed those attacks on fighters in Iraq.
The fighters had demanded the withdrawal of the US troops who were in the country to support the fight against the IS extremist group.
On Sunday, the Iraqi pro-Iran fighter, Kataib Hizbullah, reiterated its demand to remove foreign military and intelligence bases from Iraq to keep it away from international and regional conflicts. – dpa
