The 2022 Erbil missile attacks occurred on 13 March 2022 when multiple

ballistic missile A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are guided only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles stay within the ...

were launched by the

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...

from

East Azerbaijan province East Azerbaijan Province ( fa, استان آذربایجان شرقی ''Āzarbāijān-e Sharqi''; az-Arab, شرقی آذربایجان اوستانی) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is located in Iranian Azerbaijan, bordering Armenia, ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, against the city of

Erbil Erbil, also called Hawler (, ar, أربيل, Arbīl; syr, ܐܲܪܒܹܝܠ, Arbel), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It lies in the Erbil Governorate. It has an estimated population of around 1,600,000. Hu ...

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region ( ku, هەرێمی کوردستان, translit=Herêmî Kurdistan; ar, إقليم كردستان), abbr. KRI, is an autonomous region in Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok, ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Fateh-110 The Fateh-110 ( fa, فاتح-۱۱۰ "conqueror"), also known as NP-110 is an Iranian solid-fueled surface-to-surface ballistic missile produced by Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization since 2002. It is single-stage, road-mobile and can carr ...

ballistic missiles were reportedly launched from Iran. The IRGC said that the target was

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

's "strategic center" in Erbil. Kurdish authorities reported that among the places hit by the missiles were the city's American consulate and a residential neighbourhood. One

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...

was injured by the attack. According to one US official, the targets encompassed buildings where a

Mossad Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...

cell was suspected of operating, according to a conversation with an Iraqi counterpart. The next day, the

claimed responsibility for the attack.

Background

A few days before, IRGC released a statement promising Israel will pay for the killings of Ehsan Karbalaipour and Morteza Saeidnejad, two IRGC

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

s killed in an Israeli

airstrike An airstrike, air strike or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighters, heavy bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters and drones. The offic ...

in the outskirts of

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

on 7 March. Major General

Hossein Salami abdullah eslami (1960) is an Iranian military officer with the rank of major general, who is the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Early years Salami was born in 1960 in Golpayegan, Isfahan province, Iran. In 1 ...

, IRGC Commander-in-Chief and General

Amir Ali Hajizadeh Amir Ali Hajizadeh ( fa, امیرعلی حاجی‌زاده; born 28 February 1962 in Tehran) is commander of Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps since October 2009. During Eghtedar-e Velayat (war game), Eghtedar-e Velayat ...

attended their funerals.

The attack

The ballistic missiles struck the target at 1:20 a.m., the same time of the assassination of

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

Qasem Soleimani Qasem Soleimani ( fa, قاسم سلیمانی, ; 11 March 19573January 2020) was an Iranian military officer who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). From 1998 until his assassination in 2020, he was the commander of the Quds F ...

by a United States drone strike in 2020.

Reactions

On Sunday, Iraq summoned the

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

of Iran to protest the missile attack, denouncing a "flagrant violation of (Iraqi) sovereignty," Iraq protested over the missile strikes that had caused "material losses" and "damage to civilian installations and houses." Iraqi Shiite cleric

Muqtada al-Sadr Muqtada al-Sadr ( ar, مقتدى الصدر, Muqtadā aṣ-Ṣadr; born 4 August 1974) is an Iraqi politician and militia leader. He is the leader of the Sadrist Movement and the leader of the Peace Companies, a successor to the militia he had p ...

responded to the attack by tweeting "The territory of Iraq from south to north, and east to west should not be part of conflicts and that Iraq's "involvement" in conflicts was a dangerous precedent, while calling on the competent authorities to immediately send a protest letter to the United Nations and additionally to summon the Iranian ambassador. The airstrikes were also denounced by

Prime Minister of Iraq The prime minister of Iraq is the head of government of Iraq. On 27 October 2022, Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani became the incumbent prime minister. History The prime minister was originally an appointed office, subsidiary to the head of state, a ...

Mustafa Al-Kadhimi Mustafa Abdul Latif Mishatat ( ar, مصطفى عبد اللطيف مشتت; born 5 July 1967), known as Mustafa al-Kadhimi, alternatively spelt Mustafa al-Kadhimy, is an Iraqi politician, lawyer and bureaucrat and former intelligence officer who ...

, the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

President of Iraq The president of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq and "safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Con ...

Barham Salih Barham Salih ( ku, بەرھەم ساڵح, Berhem Salih; ar, برهم صالح; born 12 September 1960) is an Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the eighth president of Iraq from 2018 to 2022. He is the former prime minister of the Kurdista ...

and Iraqi Kurdish former president

Masoud Barzani Masoud Barzani ( ku, ,مه‌سعوود بارزانی, translit=Mesûd Barzanî}; born 16 August 1946) is a Kurdish politician who has been leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) since 1979, and was President of the Kurdistan Region o ...

, the latter two of whom described it as a

terrorist attack Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

Qais al-Khazali Qais Hadi Sayed Hasan al-Khazali ( ar, قيس هادي سيد حسن الخزعلي; born 20 June 1974) is best known as the founder and leader of the Iran-backed Special Groups in Iraq from June 2006 until his capture by British forces in Marc ...

, leader of

Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH; ar, عصائب أهل الحق Aṣaʾib ʾAhl al-Haqq, "League of the Righteous"), also known as the Khazali Network ( ar, شبكة الخزعلي), is a radical Iraqi Shi'a political party and paramilitary group active ...

which is a radical Iraqi

Shi'a Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

and

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

group praised the airstrike, claiming to have information about the Israeli presence and that what was bombed in Erbil was the headquarters of Mossad. He also stated that even if

Mohammed bin Salman Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud ( ar, محمد بن سلمان آل سعود, translit=Muḥammad bin Salmān Āl Su‘ūd; born 31 August 1985), colloquially known by his initials MBS or MbS, is Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. H ...

decided to bomb an Israeli headquarters in Iraq, " ewould not condemn this". On 21 March, Jafar al-Husseini, the spokesperson for Iraq’s

Kataib Hezbollah Kata'ib Hezbollah ( ar, كتائب حزب الله, lit=Battalions of the Party of God)—or the Hezbollah Battalions—is a radical Shia Islam in Iraq, Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group which is part of the Popular Mobilization Forces backed by ...

movement, warned that activities by the Israeli spy agency Mossad in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region could trigger a conflict between Iraq and its neighbors. Israel's officials declined to comment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erbil rocket attacks, 2022 2022 crimes in Iraq 2022 in international relations 2020s building bombings 2020s in Iraqi Kurdistan March 2022 crimes in Asia March 2022 events in Iraq Attacks on buildings and structures in 2022 Building bombings in Iraq 2022 rocket attacks Military operations involving Iran Iran–Israel proxy conflict Iran–Iraq relations Iran–United States relations Iraq–United States relations Iraq–Israel relations Israel–United States relations

Background

The attack

Reactions

See also

References