KABUL (BNA) Missile strikes early Sunday that landed in the vicinity of a new American consulate under construction in northern Iraq initiated from Iran, according to media reports.
The Iraqi News Agency reported that several rockets were fired at the US Consulate in Iraq, but US official reported Reuters no casualties of US troops from the attack.
The compound wasn’t hit and no U.S. personnel were hurt, said U.S. officials. They added that they weren’t sure what was being targeted and that the attack was still under investigation. The U.S. has a consulate inside Erbil, the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdish region in Iraq, and is building a new one 8 miles from the center of the city.
The Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency, quoting Saberi News, a media outlet close to Shiite militias in Iraq, wrote that dozens of explosions shook the city of Erbil and 14 rockets hit US bases near Erbil Airport.
The attack involved as many as a half-dozen missiles, and at least one landed more than two kilometers—1.2 miles—from the new compound, according to U.S. officials familiar with the preliminary reports.
Bakhtar News Agency
