Iranian Revolutionary Guards attacks ‘spy headquarters’ in Iraq

By Parisa Hafezi and Timour Azhari

January 16, 2024 — 11.40am

Dubai/Baghdad: Iran’s elite force, the Revolutionary Guards, have attacked what they said were Israel’s “spy headquarters” near the US consulate in Erbil in Iraq.

The IRGC also struck against the Islamic State terror group in Syria, it said in a statement.

“In response to the recent atrocities of the Zionist regime, causing the killing of commanders of the Guards and the Axis of Resistance … one of the main Mossad espionage headquarters in Iraq’s Kurdistan region was destroyed with ballistic missiles,” the Guards said in a statement referring to the Israeli spy agency.

In addition to those strikes in a residential area near the US consulate north-east of semi-autonomous Kurdistan’s capital Erbil, the Guards said they launched attacks against the “perpetrators of terrorist operations” in Iran, including IS.

This image taken from video provided by Rudaw TV shows smoke rising from a building hit by a strike in Irbil, Iraq, on January 16.Credit: AP

No US facilities were impacted by the missiles strikes, two US officials told Reuters.

Iran had vowed revenge for the killing of three members of the Guards in Syria last month, including a senior Guards commander, who had served as military advisers there.

The strikes come amid concerns about the escalation of a conflict that has spread through the Middle East since Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1200 people, and Israel began its bombing of the Gaza Strip. Iran’s allies have also entered the fray from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

More than 130 fighters of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah have been killed in hostilities.

“We assure our nation that the Guards’ offensive operations will continue until avenging the last drops of martyrs’ blood,” the Guards’ statement said.

Iran, which supports Hamas in its war with Israel, accuses the US of backing what it calls Israeli crimes in Gaza. The US has said it backs Israel in its campaign to eliminate Hamas, a proscribed terror group, but has raised concerns about the number of Palestinian civilians killed. More than 24,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israel’s campaign.

Protesters display posters and children’s shoes to represent children killed in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, during a rally outside the US embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Monday.Credit: AP

At least four civilians were killed and six injured in the strikes on Erbil, the Kurdistan government’s security council said in a statement, describing the attack as a “crime”.

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

Dizayee, who was close to the ruling Barzani clan, owned businesses that led major real estate projects in Kurdistan.

Additionally, one rocket fell on the house of a senior Kurdish intelligence official and another on a Kurdish intelligence centre, the security sources said.

Reuters could not independently verify any of the reports. Israeli government officials were not reachable for immediate comment.

Air traffic at Erbil airport was halted, the security sources said.

Iran has in the past 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.

People hold posters of slain Iranian Revolutionary Guard Major General Qassem Soleimani during a protest outside the US Consulate in Turkey in 2020. Soleimani was assassinated by the US in a drone strike.Credit: Getty Images

Earlier this month, IS claimed responsibility for two explosions in Iran’s south-eastern Kerman city that killed nearly 100 people and wounded scores at a memorial for top commander Qassem Soleimani.

Reuters