Iran attacked "espionage centers" and "gatherings of anti-Iranian terrorist groups" in Iraq's Irbil region, the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement on Tuesday.
Air traffic at Irbil Airport was halted after explosions were heard in the city, Reuters cited three security sources as saying.
There is a military base hosting U.S. troops in the area near Irbil International Airport in northern Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)-administered region.
Rocket attacks have frequently targeted the U.S. presence in Baghdad, including the U.S. Embassy, as well as convoys ferrying materials for the U.S.-led coalition.
The U.S. under the previous Trump administration blamed Iran-backed groups for carrying out the attacks. Tensions soared after a Washington-directed drone strike that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and powerful Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis last year. Trump had said the death of a U.S. contractor would be a red line and provoke U.S. escalation in Iraq.
The December 2019 killing of a U.S. civilian contractor in a rocket attack in Kirkuk sparked a tit-for-tat fight on Iraqi soil that brought the country to the brink of a proxy war. U.S. forces have been significantly reduced in Iraq to 2,500 personnel and no longer partake in combat missions with Iraqi forces in ongoing operations against the Daesh group.
