SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Monday ordered the formation of a committee to investigate a missile attack that targeted a residential area in Erbil on Sunday, his office said in a statement.
Twelve missiles launched by Iranian Revolutionary Guards struck Erbil city in the early hours of Sunday. Authorities in the Kurdistan Region said the attack targeted a civilian area in the city.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for the missile assault.
Iranian state media said the IRGC had launched the attack against Israeli “strategic centers” in Erbil, suggesting it was revenge for recent Israeli air strikes that killed Iranian military personnel in Syria.
“Any repetition of attacks by Israel will be met with a harsh, decisive and destructive response,” it said in a statement reported by state media, according to Reuters.
An Israeli air strike in Syria on Monday killed two members of IRGC, Iranian state media said last week. The Revolutionary Guards vowed to retaliate, it said.
The Iraqi premier paid a visit to Erbil on Monday morning and held talks with Kurdish officials in the Region’s capitals.
He also visited the location targeted by the missiles alongside Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and Iraqi foreign minister Fuad Hussein.
In a statement, Kadhimi’s office said the prime minister had ordered the formation of a committee including the national security advisor and security commanders to prepare a report about the attack and to gather “evidence and facts”.
“We reiterate that Baghdad is ready here as how Erbil is ready in Baghdad,” Kadhimi said, stressing the need to respect Iraq’s sovereignty.
“This issue has been formally addressed through diplomatic means,” he added.
“It is necessary to rely on evidence, not only doubts,” he continued. “There should be security coordination between the countries to face joint challenges.”
He also called on the Iraqi political forces to be united on Iraq’s sovereignty.
Earlier on Monday, Spokesman of Iran’s foreign ministry Saeed Khatibzadeh said Tehran had warned Iraqi and Kurdish authorities many times that its territory should not be used by third parties to conduct attacks against the country.
“The central government of Iraq has the responsibility to ensure that its territory is not used as a base for attacks by third parties against Iran,” Khatibzadeh said in a press conference.
“Several times in the past, Iraq’s territory was used against Iran by third parties including terrorist groups such as Kurdish militants, the United States and the Zionist entity,” he added, referring to Israel.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said the attack only targeted civilian residential areas, not sites belonging to foreign countries, and called on the international community to carry out an investigation.
“The cowardly attack on Erbil … allegedly under the pretext of hitting an Israeli base near the US Consulate in Erbil, targeted civilian locations and its justification is only to hide the disgracefulness of such offense,” presidency of the KRG Council of Ministers said in a statement.
“We reiterate that the propaganda of the perpetrators of this attack is far from true.
“Iran has repeated these attacks many times, and the silence of the international community in the face of these cowardly attacks will pave the way for their continuation,” it added.
“We call on the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, the Arab League, the federal government, the Iraqi parliament, and the Iranian government to urgently investigate these baseless attacks, visit targeted locations, reveal the facts to the public, and take a true and strong stance on these attacks.”
