By The US has condemned Iran over ballistic missile strikes on Iraq’s northern city of Irbil on Monday night, calling them “reckless and imprecise”.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they struck what they claimed were an Israeli “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region.
Four civilians were killed and six hurt in the attack, local authorities said.
Iraq recalled its ambassador from Tehran, condemning the strikes as a “blatant violation” of sovereignty.
There has been no comment from Israel.
The Revolutionary Guards also said they carried out missile strikes on “terrorist bases” in Syria in response to a recent suicide bombing in Iran claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group
In a separate development on Tuesday morning, Kurdish counter-terrorism forces said they had shot three armed drones flying over Irbil’s airport, where US and international forces are stationed, Reuters news agency reported.
There was no immediate claim, but an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has said it was behind similar attacks.
The Iranian strikes come amid heightened tensions across the Middle East since the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian group Hamas began on 7 October.
Iran has declared that it does not want to get involved in a wider conflict, but groups in its so-called “Axis of Resistance” have been carrying out attacks on Israel and its allies to show solidarity with the Palestinians.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement has exchanged cross-border fire with Israeli forces; Shia militias have launched drones and missiles at US forces in Iraq and Syria; and Yemen’s Houthi rebels have attacked ships in the Red Sea.
Israel has reportedly carried out strikes that killed a Hamas leader in Lebanon and a Revolutionary Guards commander in Syria, while the US has killed an Iraqi militia leader in an air strike in Iraq and bombed Houthi targets in Yemen.
