Home of Baz Karim Barzanji, CEO of an Iraq-Kurdish oil company, damaged by Iran missile, March 13, 2022

UPDATE, MARCH 29:

Iraq’s missile strikes on northern Iraq sought to disrupt a Kurdish-Israeli plan to supply gas to Turkey and Europe, according to Turkish and Iraqi officials.

Initially, the US Consulate in Erbil was thought to be the Iranian target. However, analysts noted that most of the 12 missiles hit the villa of a Kurdish businessman involved in Iraqi Kurdistan’s energy sector.

An “Iraqi security official” said, “There had been two recent meetings between Israeli and US energy officials and specialists at the [targeted] villa to discuss shipping Kurdistan gas to Turkey via a new pipeline.”

He and a “former U.S. official with knowledge of the plans” said the owner of the villa, Kurdish businessman, Baz Karim Barzanji, was developing the gas export pipeline.

A Turkish official said:

“The timing of the attack in Erbil is very interesting. It seems it was more directed at northern Iraq’s energy exports and possible cooperation that would include Israel

Some talks were held for northern Iraq natural gas exports and we know that Iraq, the United States, and Israel were involved in this process. Turkey supports this too.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards portrayed the strikes as attacks on Israel’s “strategic centres” in Erbil, retaliating for Israeli missiles that killed two Guards officers in Syria.

A “senior Iranian security official” vaguely spoke of a “multi-purposed message to many people and groups. It’s up to them how to interpret it. Whatever [Israel] is planning, from energy sector to agriculture, will not materialize.”

UPDATE, MARCH 14:

Reports are circulating that a home owned by the CEO of an Iraqi-Kurdish oil company was struck by Iranian missiles early Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Iranian regime is continuing to declare that it struck the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, operating in northern Iraq.

A US official gave some legitimacy to the claim. Citing a conversation with an Iraqi counterpart, he said targets included houses suspecting of hosting a Mossad cell.

But the Kurdistan Regional Government rejected the assertion:

Allegedly under the pretext of hitting an Israeli base near the US Consulate in Erbil, [the attack] targeted civilian locations, and its justification is only to hide the disgracefulness of such offense. We reiterate that the propaganda of the perpetrators of this attack is far from true.

UPDATE 1220 GMT:

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have taken responsibility for the launch of 12 ballistic missiles on US positions in northern Iraq early Sunday.

The Guards said they retaliated for the killing of two Iranian officers in Israeli missiles near Syria’s capital Damascus on Monday:

Following the recent crimes of the fake Zionist regime and the previous announcement that the crimes and evils of this infamous regime will not go unanswered, the strategic center for conspiracy and evil of the Zionists was targeted by powerful and pinpoint missiles of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.

See also Israel Strikes Again Near Damascus, Kills 2 Iranian Colonels

The Guards did not explain how targeting of US personnel, including at the Consulate in Erbil, had any effect on Israel.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Iran is suspected of missile attacks on US personnel in northern Iraq early Sunday.

Local officials said a dozen ballistic missiles, launched from “the eastern side of Iraq’s border” just after midnight, struck Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. A US defense official said the missiles had been fired from Iran.

The local officials said there were no casualties.

The Kurdish officials said several missiles landed in the area of the US Consulate. A US official played down the report, saying there was confirmation that the Consulate — newly-constructed and unoccupied — was targeted.

Satellite channel Kurdistan24, which is located near the Consulate, went on air just after the attack to show shattered glass and debris on their studio floor.

Masrour Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government, declared, “Erbil will not bow down to cowards. I strongly condemn the terrorist attack on several places in Erbil.”

Iran: Missiles Target “Locations Secretly Run by Israel”

Iranian authorities avoided an official claim of responsibility. State TV highlighted the attack while not mentioning the Revolutionary Guards.

However, video appeared to show the firing of the missiles from East Azerbaijan Province in northwest Iran:

And a de facto spokesman for the Iranian regime, the University of Tehran’s Seyed Mohammad Marandi, cheered the attack:

The Revolutionary Guards fired rockets on Iraqi bases with US personnel in January 2020, retaliating for the US drone assassination of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Guards’ Quds Force. Before and after the incident, Iran-backed Iraqi militias have attacked the bases, with US personnel killed and wounded.

Saturday’s strikes threaten the Vienna talks for a revision of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The discussions were near completion over US re-entry, lifting of American sanctions, and an Iranian return to compliance. However, they were obstructed last week by a Russian demand that US sanctions — imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine — be lifted as part of the final deal.

Iran may also be giving implicit support to Russia over the Ukraine invasion. After initially criticizing Moscow for the hindrance of the Vienna talks, Iranian officials including the Supreme Leader refocused their blame on Washington.

See also Nuclear Deal in Balance as Iran Shifts Attention from Russia to US

In another notable step, Iran has suspended talks with Saudi Arabia.

The next round of the discussions for reconciliation was scheduled for Wednesday in Iraq.