(Changes media identifier to IRAN-IRAQ/ATTACK)
By Parisa Hafezi and Timour Azhari
DUBAI/BAGHDAD (Reuters) -An Iranian missile strike on targets in northern Iraq set off an unusual row between the neighbouring allies on Tuesday, with Baghdad recalling its ambassador in protest and Tehran insisting the attack was intended to deter threats from Israeli spies.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards hit what they called an Israeli espionage centre in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, Iranian media reported late on Monday, while the elite force said they also struck in Syria against the Islamic State.
The strike appeared likely to deepen worries about worsening instability across the Middle East since the war between Israel and Hamas started on Oct. 7, with Iran’s allies also entering the fray from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
There has also been concern that Iraq could again become a theatre for regional conflict after a series of U.S. strikes on Iran-linked militant groups that are also part of Iraq’s formal security forces. Those strikes came in response to dozens of attacks on U.S. forces in the region carried out since Oct. 7.
The Guards said the late Monday attack, Iran’s first direct military strike in the region linked to the Gaza war, was in response to Israeli ‘atrocities” against several of its commanders and those of Iranian-allied forces around the Middle East since the conflict started.
In protest at the strike, Iraq recalled its envoy from Tehran and summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires in Baghdad, with the foreign ministry saying Baghdad would take all legal steps against what it called a violation of sovereignty.
The strikes, on a residential area near the U.S. consulate in Kurdistan’s capital Erbil, were condemned by Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani as a “crime against the Kurdish people” in which at least four civilians were killed and six injured.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos after the attack, Barzani also said the Iranian allegations of an Israeli espionage base were groundless.
Israeli government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Multimillionaire Kurdish businessman Peshraw Dizayee and several members of his family were among the dead, killed when at least one rocket crashed into their home, Iraqi security and medical sources said.
Defending the attack, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Tehran respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries but it was Iran’s “legitimate right to deter national security threats”.
In addition to the strikes in Kurdistan, the Guards said they “fired a number of ballistic missiles in Syria and destroyed the perpetrators of terrorist operations” in Iran, including the Islamic State.
‘RECKLESS’
Islamic State claimed responsibility for two explosions in Iran this month that killed nearly 100 people and wounded scores at a memorial for top commander Qassem Soleimani.
The Guards said the attacks would continue “until avenging the last drops of martyrs’ blood”, referring to the killing of three members of the Guards in Syria last month who had served as military advisers there.
France accused Iran of violating Iraq’s sovereignty and Washington condemned the attacks as “reckless”, while American officials said no U.S. facilities were struck and there were no U.S. casualties.
Iran, which supports Hamas in its war with Israel, accuses the U.S. of backing what it calls Israeli crimes in Gaza. The U.S. has said it backs Israel in its campaign but has raised concerns about the number of Palestinian civilians killed.
Iran has in the past carried out strikes in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, saying the area is used as a staging ground for Iranian separatist groups as well as agents of its arch-foe Israel.
Baghdad has tried to address Iranian concerns over separatist groups in the region, moving to relocate some members as part of a security agreement reached with Tehran in 2023.
Three armed drones were shot down early on Tuesday over Erbil airport, Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. A group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-aligned Iraqi militias, have claimed responsibility for similar previous attacks.
U.S. and international forces based in Iraq and Syria have been on high alert amid dozens of attacks, mostly claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, over Washington’s backing of Israel in the Gaza war.
(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by William Maclean)
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