Iranian missile did not hit US military base in Iraq

After an Iranian strike on Iraq in January 2024, social media posts claimed footage showed a missile hitting a US military base in the autonomous Kurdistan region. This is false; authorities say no American operations were impacted by the attack on the city of Erbil.

“IRAN just BOMBED US military bases in Iraq. The Western warmongers are getting a taste of their own medicine!” says Jackson Hinkle, an American political commentator who has repeatedly spread misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war, in a January 15, 2024 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Screenshot of an X post taken January 17, 2024

Similar posts circulated elsewhere on X, Facebook and TikTok after Iran’s deadly strikes on its neighbor in a region that includes a US military facility and consulate.

Iraq has seen a surge of unrest since Hamas militants on October 7, 2023 launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, killing some 1,140 people — mostly civilians — and taking about 250 hostages, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel responded with a relentless bombardment and ground operation in the Gaza Strip, killing more than 24,600 Palestinians — around 70 percent of them women, children and adolescents, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Iran-backed militant groups in Iraq and Syria have carried out a spate of attacks on military bases used by soldiers of a US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group.

However, the video circulating online does not show a strike on a US military base.

A reverse image search surfaced pictures from the clip in various news articles (archived here). A subsequent keyword search led to a January 15 Kurdish news report about an attack in Erbil, Iraq featuring the same image (archived here).

The strike killed four people and wounded six others, according to Iraq’s Kurdistan Security Council. AFP captured several images from the scene.

A damaged building following a missile strike launched by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the Kurdistan Region’s capital of Arbil, on January 16, 2024

Safin HAMIDAFP

A Kurdish man walks past debris following a missile strike launched by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the Kurdistan region’s capital of Arbil on January 17, 2024

Safin HAMIDAFP

Iran’s official IRNA news agency said the attacks destroyed “a spy headquarters” and a “gathering of anti-Iranian terrorist groups” in Erbil.

Iraqi and Kurdish officials denied the claims — and Iraq pulled its ambassador from Tehran in protest.

The dead included prominent real estate magnate Peshraw Dizayee, who was hit by a strike on his family home, according to the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the region’s leading party.

The US State Department issued a statement condemning the “reckless” missile strikes, stressing that they “undermine Iraq’s stability.”

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement emailed January 15 that US officials had seen the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s claims that it aimed at an Israeli “espionage center” and other targets. She said no American personnel or facilities were affected.

AFP could not independently verify the intent behind the missile strike nor the full extent of its impact.

More of AFP’s reporting on misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war is available here.