Iran launched on Wednesday a “second round” of attacks against bases holding U.S. troops in Iraq, the Tehran-based Tasnim news agency said on Wednesday.
The second round of attacks started an hour after the first phase took place, the agency reported.
In a statement, Islamic Revolution Guards Corps(IRGC) said the second missile attack targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Earlier reports had said Erbil was targeted by the first wave of missiles sent to Iraq.
The Arabic-language Al-Mayadeen TV network reported early on Wednesday that a US military base close to Erbil’s airport came under attack.
Fars News agency said all flights have been cancelled at Erbil airport.
Few hours earlier, the IRGC launched what it called heavy ballistic missile attacks on US Ein Al-Asad airbase in Southwestern Iraq near the border with Syria in retaliation for the assassination of IRGC Qods Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.
Ein Al-Asad is an airbase with a 4km runway at 188m altitude from sea levels, which is the main and the largest US airbase in Iraq.
The IRGC issued a statement saying it has fired tens of ground-to-ground missiles at “the airbase occupied by the terrorist and aggressive army of the United States known as Ein Al-Assad” in reprisal for the martyrdom of IRGC Qods Force Commaner Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.
The IRGC warned the US to avoid retaliating the Wednesday attack or else “it will face a more painful and crushing response”.
The IRGC Statement also warned “all the US allied states where the terrorist army has a base, any territory that becomes the origin of any hostile and aggressive action against the Islamic Republic of Iran in any way will be targeted”.
“We believe that the Zionist regime by no means stands aside from the criminal US regime in these crimes.”
