Following a drone strike in the city of Erbil in Iraq on the evening of Wednesday, June 9, the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Security Council issued a statement attributing the attack to Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian IRGC militia group.
Last night, the Iraqi Kurdistan Counter-Terrorism Organization reported a drone strike on Pirmam Road on the outskirts of Erbil.
Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), quoted Intel Sky’s Twitter account as saying that three vehicles were attacked on the main highway in Erbil, carrying “an Israeli spy team” and one of them was killed.
This is not the first attack by IRGC militia and forces in northern Iraq. In March of last year, Iran claimed that “two Mossad training centers” in Erbil had been targeted by missiles. Kataib Hezbollah said in a statement at the time that the Israeli attack on the Mossad headquarters was “from Iraqi territory.”
The statement said that the operation by Iranian forces, in which several Israeli officers were killed or wounded, is an event that predicts a different phase of the conflict in Iraq.
The IRGC said that it targeted a “strategic center for conspiracy and mischiefs of the Zionists was targeted by powerful precision missiles fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
The Kurdistan Regional Council of Ministers condemned the attack, which, it said was launched “under the pretext of striking an Israeli base near the U.S. consulate in Erbil, but the target site was a civilian site, and this justification is aimed at concealing the motives of this heinous crime”.
Erbil’s governor denied the presence of Israeli units, calling such allegations “baseless”, local news agency Rudaw reported.
“We condemn this terrorist attack launched against several sectors of Erbil, we call on the inhabitants to remain calm,” Kurdistan Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said.