Iraqi parliament says Erbil house targeted by Iran ‘residential’
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iraqi parliamentary committee investigating Iran’s ballistic missile strike on a house in Erbil concluded on Sunday that it was a residential building, in contradiction to Tehran’s claim that it was a Mossad base.
“What we saw was a residential house of a family. There were household effects in it, proving that people lived in it,” MP Abbas al-Zamli told reporters after visiting the destroyed mansion. He led an Iraqi parliamentary delegation that arrived in Erbil on Sunday to investigate the attack.
Last Monday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired ten ballistic missiles toward Erbil under the pretext of targeting the “spy headquarters” of anti-Iran groups. The strike killed Kurdish businessman Peshraw Dizayee and three other people. Dizayee’s mansion, destroyed in the attack, was described by Tehran as a Mossad base - a claim strongly denied by Kurdish and Iraqi officials.
Zamli said further investigations will be conducted in coordination between Erbil and Baghdad, and the Kurdish interior minister could be invited to speak about the attack in the Iraqi parliament.
Kurdistan Regional Government Interior Minister Reber Ahmed said at the same press conference that an Iraqi-Iranian security committee met in Baghdad two days before the attack and the Iranian side did not express any concerns about an alleged Mossad presence in Erbil.
Tehran and Baghdad in March entered into a security pact, signing a border protection deal in which Baghdad agreed to disarm Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region and secure the border regions.
Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji last week visited Erbil to assess the aftermath of the Iranian bombardment. After inspecting the targeted location, he concluded that claims about the presence of a Mossad base in Erbil are “baseless.”
“What we saw was a residential house of a family. There were household effects in it, proving that people lived in it,” MP Abbas al-Zamli told reporters after visiting the destroyed mansion. He led an Iraqi parliamentary delegation that arrived in Erbil on Sunday to investigate the attack.
Last Monday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired ten ballistic missiles toward Erbil under the pretext of targeting the “spy headquarters” of anti-Iran groups. The strike killed Kurdish businessman Peshraw Dizayee and three other people. Dizayee’s mansion, destroyed in the attack, was described by Tehran as a Mossad base - a claim strongly denied by Kurdish and Iraqi officials.
Zamli said further investigations will be conducted in coordination between Erbil and Baghdad, and the Kurdish interior minister could be invited to speak about the attack in the Iraqi parliament.
Kurdistan Regional Government Interior Minister Reber Ahmed said at the same press conference that an Iraqi-Iranian security committee met in Baghdad two days before the attack and the Iranian side did not express any concerns about an alleged Mossad presence in Erbil.
Tehran and Baghdad in March entered into a security pact, signing a border protection deal in which Baghdad agreed to disarm Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region and secure the border regions.
Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji last week visited Erbil to assess the aftermath of the Iranian bombardment. After inspecting the targeted location, he concluded that claims about the presence of a Mossad base in Erbil are “baseless.”