Iraq files complaint against Iran at UN Security Council over ‘aggression’

Iraq has filed a complaint against Iran at the United Nations Security Council over the Iranian “aggression,” the Iraqi foreign ministry says in a statement.

An Iranian missile strike on targets in northern Iraq set off an unusual dispute between the neighboring allies on Tuesday, with Baghdad recalling its ambassador and Tehran insisting the attack was intended to deter threats from Israeli “spies.”

Iran fired missiles late Monday at what it said were Israeli “spy headquarters” in an upscale neighborhood near the sprawling US Consulate compound in Erbil, the seat of Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region, and at targets linked to the extremist Islamic State group in northern Syria.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said in a statement Tuesday that it launched four Kheibar missiles at IS positions in Idlib in Syria and 11 precision ballistic missiles at the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, where it said it hit a center of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. Iraqi officials denied that the building was related to Mossad, with Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem al-Araji dismissing the “false” claim.

The Iranian attack was “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq, strongly contradicts the principles of good neighborliness and international law, and threatens the security of the region,” the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Agencies contributed to this report.