Iran missile attack on Erbil goes beyond retaliation for IRGC deaths

Iran’s brazen ballistic missile attack on Erbil in the early hours of Sunday is a further chilling reminder of the continued vulnerability of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, seen as easy prey by its large and aggressive neighbors, Turkey and Iran.

The IRGC said in a statement that a “strategic center for conspiracy and mischiefs of the Zionists was targeted by powerful precision missiles fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.” Erbil’s governor denied the presence of Israeli agents.

Iran has long claimed that Israel’s national spy agency, the Mossad, maintains a presence in Iraqi Kurdistan. The move appears to have been in retaliation for a March 7 Israeli airstrike on Damascus that killed two IRGC guards.