By Manal Abdel Fattah
A statement issued by the Kurdistan Regional Security Council this afternoon, Wednesday, condemned the Iranian Revolutionary Guards firing several ballistic missiles at civilian areas in Erbil, which led to the death of four citizens and the injury of six others.
The Revolutionary Guard said that the attack targeted several sites of Iranian opposition groups, but the Kurdistan Security Council statement said that Iran “unfortunately always uses baseless excuses to attack Erbil, a stable region that has never been a source of threat to any party.”
The region’s Security Council statement stressed that “this is a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Kurdistan region and Iraq, and the federal government and the international community must not remain silent regarding this crime.”
While Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the Arab League, condemned the Iranian missile bombing that targeted a number of areas in Erbil yesterday evening, and claimed the lives of a number of innocent civilians in a blatant violation of Iraq’s sovereignty. Aboul Gheit expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and his wishes for a speedy recovery for the injured.
Jamal Rushdi, the official spokesman for the Secretary-General, explained that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s adoption of this targeting is reprehensible behavior and a condemnable violation of the principles of sovereignty and good neighbourliness.
Rushdi added that this attack also constitutes a dangerous development on the Iraqi scene, and raises the level of danger from the expansion of the ongoing war in the region, warning against the consequences of considering Iraq an arena for settling scores.
The spokesman renewed the Arab League’s solidarity with the Iraqi government in all the measures it takes to preserve Iraq’s sovereignty, security and stability, and to preserve regional security and stability.
