Turkish consulate in Mosul targeted in rocket strike as Iraq, Turkey row at UN Security Council

The Turkish consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul was targeted by rocket fire on Wednesday, a security source has told The New Arab's Arabic-language sister site.

Four rockets were fired towards the consulate in Mosul's Al-Hadba neighbourhood at dawn on Wednesday but landed outside the compound, a senior security official from Mosul's police service told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

The attack did not cause any casualties, but did damage homes and cars, the official said.

The rockets were fired from a rural area north of the city controlled by Brigade 30, a faction of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), they added.

The attack came as the UN Security Council met in an emergency session called for by Iraq after artillery shelling killed nine Iraqi tourists visiting a resort in Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iraq has blamed Turkey for the attack, but Ankara has denied responsibility, instead blaming it on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Kurdish rebel group with bases in Iraqi Kurdistan that it is fighting.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein called for the UN to establish an international, independent team to investigate what he called "flagrant aggression" by Turkish forces.

Shut for years, the Turkish consulate in Mosul reopened in May last year.

It was closed in 2014 when its consul and dozens of local and foreign staff were abducted by militants from the Islamic State (IS) group.

The building housing the consulate was bombed in an air strike by the US-led coalition in 2016.

After city was liberated from IS control in 2017, Turkish officials repeatedly promised to reopen the consulate, but it was hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Friday, two bomb-laden drones were shot down near a Turkish base in Iraqi Kurdistan.