The AP reports on the message from the mullahs that landed in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan province: “Iran has claimed responsibility for a missile barrage that struck early Sunday near a sprawling U.S. consulate complex in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, saying it was retaliation for an Israeli strike in Syria that killed two members of its Revolutionary Guard….Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said on its website that it launched the attack against an Israeli ‘strategic center of conspiracy’ in Irbil.”
MENA’s Simon Rushton has more here and Israel National News adds this: “A senior US official confirmed to Fox News that the missiles fired toward the US Consulate in Erbil emanated from Iran. The official said that multiple missiles were fired, but none hit the Consulate and no Americans were injured.”
Seth Frantzman asks what it’s all about in this Jerusalem Post column. I think Michael Doran has decoded the message from the mullahs (below).
I presume that the Iranian attack on Erbil was a response to Israel killing two Iranian colonels in Damascus. The message from Tehran to the Americans is: "Rein in the Israelis, or we will escalate against you." I fear the White House will indeed blame the Israelis and not Iran.
— Mike (@Doranimated) March 13, 2022
That, too, won't happen. Until someone, in Washington or Jerusalem, stands up to Iran, the situation is going to get worse.
— Mike (@Doranimated) March 13, 2022
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.