Three Katyusha rockets targeted an oil refinery in the Erbil governorate of northeastern Iraq on Wednesday evening, according to the Kurdistan Directorate General of Counter Terrorism. No injuries or damages were reported in the attack.
No party has taken responsibility for the rocket fire as of yet. The rockets were fired from the Al-Hamdaniya district of the Nineveh Governorate, near Mosul, according to Kurdish authorities.
The refinery reportedly belongs to the KAR group. The home of Baz Karim, the CEO of the KAR group, was targeted by missiles fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from Iran last month. The IRGC claimed at the time that the attack was carried out in response to "recent crimes of the fake Zionist regime.”
#BREAKING: Rocket attack close to Kurdistan Region’s largest oil refinery in Erbil governorate. The refinery is run by KAR Group. The KAR CEO was attacked by Iranian missile on March 13.
— Baxtiyar Goran ☀️ (@BaxtiyarGoran) April 6, 2022
“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 of Conspiracy and Evil of the Zionists’ was targeted last night by powerful and point-to-point missiles of the IRGC,” read the IRGC's statement.
Iranian and pro-Iranian media reported that the attack was carried out in response to an alleged Israeli drone attack on an IRGC base in Mahidasht, Iran.
In mid-February, a fire broke out at an IRGC drone base in Mahidasht. The IRGC said at the time that the cause of the fire was under investigation. Satellite imagery taken shortly afterwards by Planet satellite imaging company and shared by OSINT-account Aurora Intel showed a damaged structure at the base.
According to the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen TV, the attack was a response to an attack by six drones said to have been launched from the site targeted by the Iranian missile strike on Saturday night.
The Lebanese news network additionally claimed that multiple casualties were reported in the strike on Saturday night, despite Iraqi and American denials.
The IRGC warned that any further “evil” by Israel would face a “harsh, decisive and destructive response.”