Baghdad: As many as 12 missiles struck Iraq’s northern city of Irbil on Sunday near the US consulate, Iraqi security officials said. A US defence official said missiles had been launched at the city from neighbouring Iran.
No injuries were reported. Officials in Iraq and the US gave different accounts of the strike and the damage it caused. A second US official said there was no damage and no casualties at any US government facility, and that there was no indication the target was the consulate building, which is new and currently unoccupied.
The US defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because information was still coming in, said it was still not certain exactly how many missiles were fired and exactly where they landed.
An Iraqi official in Baghdad at first said several missiles had hit the US consulate and that it was the target of the attack. Later, Lawk Ghafari, the head of Kurdistan’s foreign media office, said none of the missiles hit the US facility but that areas around the compound had been hit by the missiles.
The US defence official said it was still not certain exactly how many missiles were fired and exactly where they landed. Neither US official was authorised to discuss the event by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Read the article by Qassim Abdul-Zahra in The Sydney Morning Herald.