IRGC attack in line with defending national sovereignty, says Iran

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry on Tuesday said that the ballistic missile strike on the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Erbil was in line with Tehran's defense of its sovereignty, security, and the mission of "combating terrorism." The Iraqi foreign ministry summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires to hand him a protest note in response to the attacks on the same day. 

In the late hours of Monday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched 10 ballistic missiles toward the Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil, under the pretext of targeting “spy headquarters” of anti-Iran groups, killing at least four and wounding 17 others.

Nasser Kanaani, the spokesperson of the Iranian foreign ministry said on his Telegram channel that the attack on Erbil was “in line with the defense of the country's sovereignty and security, combating terrorism, and is part of the fair punishment by the Islamic Republic against those who pose a threat to the security of the nation.”

Kanaani said Tehran will not hesitate to use its “legitimate and legal right” to confront what it considers a “threat to the national security” of Iran.

Kanaani reiterated the IRGC’s early Tuesday morning claim of having targeted “spy headquarters,” more specifically Israel’s Mossad-affiliated center, in the Kurdistan Region’s capital, a claim which has been vehemently denied multiple times by Kurdistan Region officials.

Iraq’s foreign ministry on Tuesday denounced “the Iranian aggression” against Erbil, labeling the attack “a violation” of Iraqi sovereignty. The ministry later announced that it had summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires in Baghdad, handing him a “protest note” condemning the attack.

The Iraqi foreign ministry announced later on Tuesday that it summoned its ambassador to Tehran for “consultations in light of the recent Iranian attacks on Erbil.”

At least five of the missiles launched by the IRGC targeted the residence of Peshraw Dizayee, a well-known Kurdish businessman. Dizayee and his 11-month-old daughter were killed as a result of the attack.

The Iraqi foreign ministry announced earlier that Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani ordered the formation of a security committee to investigate the incident and “support the [Iraqi] government’s stance internationally.”

Earlier in the day, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani condemned in the strongest terms the "cowardly attack on the people of the Kurdistan Region,” urging the Iraqi federal government to “take a principled position against the flagrant violation of Iraq’s and the Kurdistan Region’s sovereignty.”