Iran attacked northern Iraq on Wednesday with greater than 40 ballistic missiles and armed drones, one among which was shot down by a U.S. warplane because it headed towards town of Erbil the place American troops are based mostly, based on U.S. and Iraqi officers.
The strikes had been by far the biggest and most dangerous in current days by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has carried out repeated bombardments of Kurdish areas in northern Iraq since final week, after publicly blaming Iranian Kurdish separatist teams based mostly there for fomenting unrest that has swept throughout Iran.
Not less than 13 individuals had been killed within the bombardment, together with a minimum of one pregnant lady, based on an announcement by the Kurdistan Regional Authorities’s counterterrorism drive. One other 58 individuals had been injured, together with a number of kids, based on the assertion.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was wanting into the likelihood {that a} U.S. citizen was killed within the assault, a spokesman mentioned.
Smoke rises from the headquarters of the Kurdistan Freedom Occasion on the outskirts of Kirkuk, Iraq, after an Iranian strike on Wednesday.
Photograph:
AKO RASHEED/REUTERS
An Iranian Mojer-6 drone was shot down with an air-to-air missile fired from the U.S. F-15E fighter that needed to be scrambled to intercept the drone, based on a protection official.
In an announcement, U.S. Central Command, which oversees navy operations within the Center East, mentioned the drone was shot down Wednesday afternoon native time because it “appeared a risk to Centcom forces within the space.”
The assertion added: “Such indiscriminate assaults threaten harmless civilians and the hard-fought stability of the area.”
Different drones and the Iranian short-range Fateh-110 ballistic missiles struck camps and bases utilized by Iranian Kurdish militants and refugees on the outskirts of Erbil and close to Sulaimaniyah, one other largely Kurdish Iraqi metropolis.
The Revolutionary Guard, Iran’s safety drive, launched the artillery assaults towards “anti-Iran terrorist teams” within the Iraqi Kurdistan area, the Revolutionary Guard mentioned in an announcement carried by the state information company, IRNA.
Iran lately has frequently carried out such assaults concentrating on what it has mentioned are Iranian Kurdish separatist teams hiding throughout the northwestern border in Iraq’s mountainous Kurdish area. Iranian authorities mentioned the dissidents had been concerned in protests that erupted in Iran’s Kurdish area following the funeral of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on Sept. 17 in her hometown within the space.
“This operation will proceed with our full dedication till the risk is successfully repelled,” the IRGC mentioned.
In Washington, the White Home condemned the Iranian strikes. “Iranian leaders proceed to reveal flagrant disregard not just for the lives of their very own individuals, but additionally for his or her neighbors,” mentioned Jake Sullivan, the nationwide safety adviser. “Iran can not deflect blame from its inside issues and the official grievances of its inhabitants with assaults throughout its borders.”
U.S. commanders had been involved that the downed drone might need been heading for a base utilized by U.S. troops close to the Erbil airport, although there isn’t any agency proof that the set up was the goal, the protection official mentioned.
Quite a few armed Kurdish separatist teams function in Iran, lots of whom have moved their base to the Iraqi aspect of the border to shelter from Iranian assaults.
“We strongly condemn these steady assaults which end result within the demise of civilians and we name for an finish to those violations,” the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Authorities mentioned.
—Ghassan Adnan contributed to this text.
Write to David S. Cloud at david.cloud@wsj.com
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