Baz Karim Barzinji, the chief executive officer of the Iraqi Kurdish oil giant KAR group, has denied that his company has any connections to Mossad. The rockets completely destroyed his lovely home, but he is thankful that none of his family members were hurt in the incident.
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The consulate itself was not harmed, and there were no recorded injuries as a result of the attack. The United States of America has stated that it does not believe that it was the target of the attack. However, the barrage represented a substantial step up in the level of tension between the United States and Iran. The long-standing animosity between the two adversaries has frequently manifested itself in Iraq, despite the fact that the Iraqi government is associated with both countries.
On Friday, while giving a tour of the ruins to The Associated Press, Barzinji pointed out a big crater that had formerly served as the location of his home office. According to the source, the tycoon, his wife, and two of their teenage children were visiting a farm in the area when the attack occurred.
The elegant sitting rooms that were once used by government officials to mingle with ambassadors and other influential persons are now littered with shards of glass, chunks of concrete, and piles of rubbish. The floors are covered in rubble, the windows and the roof have been removed, and the remnants of the walls of the mansion are barely standing.
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He declared, “This is my family residence, all the portraits and our possessions” were there in the abode they were touring. “It was a terrible experience.”
His daughter, Ban Karim, relates how she and the family dogs took cover in the backyard while the rumbling missiles flew overhead. She spoke to us in English and said, “We do not know whether they can see us, we do not know if they are drones, we do not know anything about ballistics, what is going to happen right now.”
It has been speculated by observers that the timing of the attack was crucial, given that the attention of the world is currently focused on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Through the sale of its oil, the semi-autonomous Kurdish area in northern Iraq maintains covert connections to Israel. Through a partnership with Russia’s Rosneft, Barzinji’s KAR company was able to construct and take over the operation of the export pipeline leading to Ceyhan in Turkey.
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“What the Iranians are talking about is obviously completely and utterly nonsensical. An Iraqi Kurdish political expert by the name of Hiwa Osman stated, in reference to Barzanji’s villa, that “this can be anything but an Israeli base.”
In addition, an Iraqi intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the strike, refuted reports that the property was an Israeli spy center. Instead, the person stated that the residence was a location where diplomats frequently held social meetings.
Iran carried out its first attack on Iraqi soil since it launched a missile strike on a U.S. air base in Ain al-Assad in January 2020. That attack was a form of retaliation for the drone strikes carried out by the United States that resulted in the death of a senior Iranian general named Qassem Soleimani outside the Baghdad airport.
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“This is a message (by Iran) to their people, who are the foundation of their nation. According to Hamdi Malik, an associate fellow at the Washington Institute who specializes in Shiite militias and has extensive knowledge in the field, “They wanted to raise their morale because they have been humiliated for a long time.”
Malik believes that the attack that took place on Sunday was meticulously planned to minimize casualties and cause no direct harm to U.S. interests. However, he also believes that the attack was intended to send a message to the Americans in the midst of stalled nuclear talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna: the next time could be bigger, and more dangerous.
The bombing also served to remind Baghdad, where negotiations on establishing a government are now moving at a snail’s pace and where Moqtada al-Sadr, the victor of Iraq’s parliamentary election in 2021, has threatened to exclude Iran-backed parties by forming an alliance with the Kurds and Sunnis.
According to Malik, Iran’s “message to Iraqi partners is that regardless of who wins the election…. Iraq is our backyard and we can do anything we want, anytime we want.”
From Baghdad, Abdul-Zahra filed his report. Samya Kullab, a reporter for the Associated Press based in Baghdad, contributed to this story.
