Adam Rawnsley Sat, March 12, 2022, 10:13 PM·2 min read
Iran launched a dozen ballistic missiles at the Iraqi city of Erbil late Saturday night in the vicinity of an unoccupied American consulate under construction, according to the Associated Press.
In a statement released after the attack, the State Department said, âWe condemn this outrageous attack and display of violence,â and confirmed that no U.S. personnel or facilities had been damaged.
Lawk Ghafuri, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government, confirmed that 12 missiles had struck Erbil and claimed that they had been launched âfrom outside Iraqâ and produced no casualties.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi stopped short of attributing the attack but condemned the âaggression which targeted the dear city of Erbil and spread fear amongst its inhabitants.â He called it âan attack on the security of our peopleâ and pledged to investigate it.
Social media users in Erbil posted clips of apparent missile strikes in Erbil followed by large explosions. Kurdistan24, a local news channel with a studio near the scene of the strike, also broadcast footage of broken glass and damage at its offices near what the outlet claimed was a missile attack.
Iranian-backed militia media outlets quickly claimed that the attack was carried out by Iran using Fateh-110 short range ballistic missiles. Social media users in Iran also posted videos of what appeared to be missiles streaking through the sky in towns and cities near Iranâs border with Iraq.
Iran has not claimed responsibility for the attack, and semi official Iranian news outlets have instead amplified claims by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. Fars News, which is close to Iranâs Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, tweeted out clips from Sabreen News, a popular Iranian-backed militia Telegram channel, which noted that security camera footage showed the missiles struck at 1:20 a.m., the same time that missiles from a U.S. drone killed Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. The caption said that the timing was ânot accidental at all.â
U.S. Strike Kills Iranâs Most Important Military Commander
Iran has twice before launched ballistic missiles at Iraqi targets. In September 2018, the IRGCâs Aerospace Force launched short range ballistic missiles at a facility belonging to the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, an armed separatist group that has called for an independent Kurdish homeland in Iran. In January 2020, Iran also attacked U.S. forces with a ballistic missile strike on Al-Asad airbase in retaliation for the killing of Soleimani.
Reuters
March 8, 20221:44 PM ESTLast Updated 4 days ago
Iran will send a series of military satellites into orbit over the coming years, Space Commander of the Revolutionary Guards' Aerospace Force Ali Jafarabadi said on Tuesday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
"We will launch a series of Noor satellites in the coming years. The space program of the country, of which we are a part, is to stabilize various scientific, research and defence satellites in low-earth orbit and then reach orbit of 36,000 kilometers above land," Jafarabadi said.
The U.S. military says the same long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit could also allow Tehran to launch longer-range weapons, possibly including nuclear warheads.
Tehran denies U.S. assertions that such activity is a cover for ballistic missile development and says it has never pursued the development of nuclear weapons.
"The IRGC successfully placed Iran's second military satellite, Noor 2, into orbit 500 kilometres from earth," the semi-official Tasnim news agency said.
The three-stage Qased, or "Messenger", carrier launched the Noor 2, from the Shahroud space port, it added. The same type of rockets, which use a combination of liquid and solid fuels, carried the first military satellite.
In December, Iran's space launch failed to put its three payloads into orbit after the rocket was unable to reach the required speed, a defence ministry spokesman said.
The attempted launch drew criticism from the United States, Germany and France.
Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programs in the Middle East, has suffered several failed satellite launches in recent years due to technical issues.
The United States imposed sanctions on Iran's civilian space agency and two research organisations in 2019, saying they were being used to advance Tehran's ballistic missile program.
Tehran denies that its space activity is a cover for ballistic missile development.
Iran will send a series of military satellites into orbit over the coming years, Space Commander of the Revolutionary Guards' Aerospace Force Ali Jafarabadi said on Tuesday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
"We will launch a series of Noor satellites in the coming years. The space program of the country, of which we are a part, is to stabilize various scientific, research and defence satellites in low-earth orbit and then reach orbit of 36,000 kilometers above land," Jafarabadi said.
The U.S. military says the same long-range ballistic technology used to put satellites into orbit could also allow Tehran to launch longer-range weapons, possibly including nuclear warheads.
Tehran denies U.S. assertions that such activity is a cover for ballistic missile development and says it has never pursued the development of nuclear weapons.
"The IRGC successfully placed Iran's second military satellite, Noor 2, into orbit 500 kilometres from earth," the semi-official Tasnim news agency said.
The three-stage Qased, or "Messenger", carrier launched the Noor 2, from the Shahroud space port, it added. The same type of rockets, which use a combination of liquid and solid fuels, carried the first military satellite.
In December, Iran's space launch failed to put its three payloads into orbit after the rocket was unable to reach the required speed, a defence ministry spokesman said.
The attempted launch drew criticism from the United States, Germany and France.
Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programs in the Middle East, has suffered several failed satellite launches in recent years due to technical issues.
The United States imposed sanctions on Iran's civilian space agency and two research organisations in 2019, saying they were being used to advance Tehran's ballistic missile program.
Tehran denies that its space activity is a cover for ballistic missile development.