Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iran has expanded its security, political and religious influence in the country by funding and training militia groups, some of them with political wings. Over the years, those fighters have battled American troops, Sunni insurgents and the militants of the Islamic State.
Iran has said that its goal is to drive the U.S. military out of Iraq entirely, even in its current role of providing advice and assistance to Iraq’s military without engaging in combat. In the past few years, many Iraqis have pushed back against Iran’s influence, seeing it as foreign meddling destabilizing their country.
Shortly after the attack on Sunday, social media and Telegram accounts affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards posted videos that showed missiles setting off a massive fireball and a giant plume of smoke. Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the Guards, said that in addition to the dozen missiles, 14 BM-21 Grad rockets also struck targets in Erbil.
The governor of Erbil province said two civilians were slightly wounded in the attack. A spokesman for the regional government, Lawk Ghafuri, said that the missiles had not hit the consulate site, but that they landed near it. A Kurdish satellite television network, K24, reported that its offices on the same road had been struck. It posted photos of offices and hallways with collapsed ceilings.
The Revolutionary Guards had threatened to retaliate for the Israeli strike in Syria. The two members of the Guards killed in the strike played a key role in Iran’s attempt to provide Hezbollah with assistance that would make its rockets and missiles much more accurate, according to a senior Israeli defense official. The Israeli defense establishment has called on units to upgrade their alert status, mostly in the Air Force and intelligence in light of the threats of retaliation by Iran.
News outlets and social media accounts affiliated with the Guards also said the strike occurred around 1:30 a.m. local time, the same time that Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, was killed by an American drone strike in January 2020. Days after the general was killed, Iran retaliated with missile strikes on an American base in Iraq, injuring about 100 U.S. military personnel.
“This is not at all a coincidence,” Sabereen News said of the timing of Sunday’s strike.
The strike near Erbil could create another obstacle for diplomatic efforts underway to revive the 2015 deal over Iran’s nuclear program. The United States and Iran have been indirectly negotiating in Vienna for months. On Friday, a pause was announced in the talks, after Russia demanded exemptions from sanctions and a written guarantee that it could carry out economic trade with Iran under the deal. The United States refused.
The new American consulate being built outside Erbil will eventually replace the existing much smaller one in a densely populated Erbil suburb, which has been the target of previous attacks. Construction on the new compound, which will be one of the largest American consulates in the world, began four years ago. It had been scheduled to open this year, but progress has been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Ronen Bergman, Falih Hassan and Lara Jakes contributed reporting.
