Reuters
Arbil
A car bomb killed three people yesterday outside the US consulate in Arbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, an ally of Washington in the war against Islamic State, which claimed the attack.
No US personnel were hurt in the blast, according to the US State Department, which said a “vehicle-borne improvised explosive device” exploded right outside the entrance to the heavily fortified compound.
Kurdistan is an important partner for the US-led coalition in its campaign to “degrade and destroy” the Islamic State (IS) group, which overran large parts of Iraq last summer and threatened to reach Arbil.
A Reuters witness heard the blast, which was followed by gunfire and a column of black smoke high above the Ankawa district, a predominantly Christian neighbourhood packed with cafes popular with foreigners.
“It seems the consulate was the target,” Nihad Qoja, the mayor of Arbil’s city centre, said.
The head of security for Ankawa said three people were killed and 14 wounded.
“They (IS) want to show they are present,” Sherzad Farmand said.
IS also claimed responsibility for two car bombings in Baghdad that killed at least 27 people yesterday.
“The fighters of the Islamic State detonated two car bombs in the heart of the Iraqi capital this evening and a third in Arbil,” the group said via its news agency.
US officials said they found the IS claim of responsibility for the Arbil consulate attack credible. “We have no reason to doubt their claim of responsibility,” a US counter-terrorism official said.
Such attacks are relatively rare in Kurdistan, which has managed to insulate itself from the worst of the violence afflicting the rest of Iraq.
The last major attack in Arbil, also claimed by IS, was in November, when a suicide car bomber blew himself up outside the governor’s office, killing five.
People gather at the scene of the blast in Arbil yesterday.
