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IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Once a lavish mansion, the sprawling home of an Iraqi Kurdish oil tycoon was laid to waste in a barrage of missiles that struck near a U.S. consulate complex in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil earlier this week.
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said it launched the attack last Sunday, firing off 12 cruise missiles at what it described as a “strategic center” of the Israeli spy agency Mossad — in retaliation for an Israeli strike in Syria that killed two of the Iranian paramilitary force’s members the previous week.
Baz Karim Barzinji, CEO of the Iraqi Kurdish oil company KAR group, denies any links to Mossad. The missiles gutted his beautiful home but he says he is grateful his family was unharmed.
The consulate was undamaged and no injuries were reported in the attack. The United States said it did not believe it was the target. But the barrage marked a significant escalation between the U.S. and Iran. Hostility between the longtime foes has often played out in Iraq, whose government is allied with both countries.
Barzinji pointed to a large crater where once his home office stood as he took The Associated Press on a tour of the ruins on Friday. The tycoon, his wife and two teenage children were visiting a nearby farm when the attack took place, he said.
Once plush sitting rooms, where government officials rubbed shoulders with diplomats and other figures of influence, are now strewn with glass, pieces of concrete and piles of debris. The windows and the roof are gone, remnants of the mansion walls barely stand, and floors are covered with rubble.
“This is my family house, all the photos and our belongings” were here, he said. “It was horrifying.”
His daughter, Ban Karim, recounts how she huddled in the garden with the family dogs as the thundering missiles whizzed overhead. “We do not know if 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,” she…
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Source : yahoo
