Iran strike triggers row with Iraq

An Iranian missile strike on targets in northern Iraq set off an unusual row between the neighbouring allies yesterday with Baghdad recalling its ambassador in protest and Tehran insisting the attack was intended to deter threats from Israeli spies.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards hit what they called an Israeli espionage centre in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan region, Iranian media reported late on Monday, while the elite force said they also struck in Syria against the Islamic State.

The strike appeared likely to deepen worries about worsening instability across the Middle East since the war between Israel and Hamas started, with Iran’s allies also entering the fray from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

There has also been concern that Iraq could again become a theatre for regional conflict after a series of US strikes on Iran-linked militant groups that are also part of Iraq’s formal security forces.

The Guards said the late Monday attack, Iran’s first direct military strike in the region linked to the Gaza war, was in response to Israeli ‘atrocities” against several of its commanders and those of Iranian-allied forces around the Middle East since the conflict started.

In protest at the strike, Iraq recalled its envoy from Tehran and summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in Baghdad, with the foreign ministry saying Baghdad would take all legal steps against what it called a violation of sovereignty.

The strikes, on a residential area near the US consulate in Kurdistan’s capital Erbil, were condemned by Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani 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 in Davos after the attack, Barzani also said the Iranian allegations of an Israeli espionage base were groundless.

Multimillionaire Kurdish businessman Peshraw Dizayee and several members of his family were killed when at least one rocket crashed into their home, Iraqi security and medical sources said.

Defending the attack, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said Tehran respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries but it was Iran’s “legitimate right to deter national security threats”.

In addition to the strikes in Kurdistan, the Guards said they “fired a number of ballistic missiles in Syria and destroyed the perpetrators of terrorist operations” in Iran, including the Islamic State.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for two explosions in Iran this month that killed nearly 100 people and wounded scores at a memorial for top commander Qassem Soleimani.

The Guards said the attacks would continue “until avenging the last drops of martyrs’ blood”, referring to the killing of three members of the Guards in Syria last month who had served as military advisers there.

France accused Iran of violating Iraq’s sovereignty and Washington condemned the attacks as “reckless”, while American officials said no US facilities were struck and there were no US casualties.

Iran, which supports Hamas in its war with Israel, accuses the US of backing what it calls Israeli crimes in Gaza.

Three armed drones were shot down early yesterday over Erbil airport, Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. —