At least 12 Iraqi missiles have hit the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital, Erbil, with some reports suggesting that a few landed near the U.S. embassy.
A U.S. official said the missions were unveiled in neighboring Iran on Sunday morning, but there were no reports of casualties.
Iraqi and US officials have provided separate accounts of the damage. One U.S. official said there was no damage and no casualties at any US government facility, and no target was a consulate building, new and unoccupied.
An Iraqi official in Baghdad initially said a number of missiles had struck the consulate and that it had been intended to attack. Later, Lawk Ghafari, head of the foreign affairs office in Kurdistan, said not a single arrow hit the American center but the surrounding areas were hit.
An American defense official, who did not want to be named, said it was unclear how many shots were fired and where they ended up. A spokesman for the US embassy called it a “sad attack on the Iraqi government and a display of violence”.
The Erbil health department said no deaths had been reported.
“Several arrows fell on the city of Erbil,” said Erbil Governor Omid Khoshnaw, quoted by Iraqi news agency INA.
The governor said it was unclear whether it was intended to be an American ambassador or airport, where there is a US-led coalition base fighting the Islamic State group.
“We condemn the terrorist attack that has taken place in many parts of Erbil, and call on the people to calm down,” Kurdistan’s prime minister Masrour Barzani said in a statement.
The attack comes just days after an Israeli strike near Damascus, Syria killing two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
The Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Iraqi media as admitting the attack, without saying where it came from.
Kurdistan24 satellite station, located near the US consulate, entered the air from their studio shortly after the attack, showing broken glass and debris on the floor of their studio.
Earlier, U.S. troops were stationed at Erbil International Airport in response to rocket-propelled grenades and suspected airstrikes by U.S. officials in Iran’s allied forces, but no such attack took place for several months.
A spokesman for the regional authorities said there were no disruptions to the flight at Erbil airport.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Erbil residents posted videos online showing massive explosions, with some saying the explosion shook their homes. Reuters could not independently process the videos.
Iraq has been rocked by ongoing instability since the Sunni Islamist Islamic State was defeated in 2017 by a loose Iraqi military coalition, led by the US and backed by Iran.
Iraqi political parties, most of them armed with arms, also engaged in heated negotiations to establish a government after the October elections.
Shia militant groups close to Iran have secretly warned of violence if they are left out of any ruling party.
The main political enemies of those groups include their powerful Shia rival, the prominent cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has vowed to form a government that excludes Iranian allies and unites Kurds and Sunnis.