New York Times Says Iraqi Building Targeted By Iran Is ‘Mossad Training Center’

NEW YORK (VINnews) — One of the buildings in Erbil struck over the weekend by a missile fired by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran was an Israeli training facility, a senior US official tells The New York Times.

Iraqi media say a dozen of ballistic missiles have hit secret bases of Israel’s Mossad spy agency in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, with reports of fatalities among Mossad officers there.

Citing security sources, Iraq’s Sabereen News reported that two Mossad training centers were targeted by ballistic missiles in the early hours of Sunday.

The Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen network reported that Mossad’s base, located on the Masif-Saladin in Erbil, was “fully razed to the ground and a number of Israeli mercenaries were killed or injured” in the precision strike.

Reports, quoting Kurdistan region’s intelligence sources, said as many as 12 ballistic missiles were used in Erbil attack.

“Twelve ballistic missiles were launched from outside Iraq to target Erbil, the state news agency quoted the Directorate General of Counter Terrorism in the Kurdistan region as saying.

There were no casualties reported in the attack.

It is not the first time that secret Mossad bases come under attack in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, according to Sabareen News.

In April last year, three Mossad officers were allegedly killed in a raid by “unknown resistance forces” against a facility run by the spy agency, according to security sources cited by the news agency.

Last September, The Cradle, which describes itself as a journalist-driven publication covering West Asia, also reported that the resistance axis has killed two high-ranking American and Israeli commanders in a military operation in Erbil, In retaliation to the US assassination of Iranian commanders Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Israel has not revealed any such covert operations and has not acknowledged any casualties in Iraq.

US forces stationed at Erbil’s international airport complex have come under frequent attacks carried out by missiles and drones, but no such attacks had occurred for several months.