Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) has launched artillery attacks against Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, claiming it targeted “the strongholds of terrorist groups”.

Tasnim news agency, affiliated to the IRGC, reported the attack on Wednesday, saying no details are available so far about possible fatalities and damages in the strike.

According to local Kurdistan officials, the artillery attack hit Barbazin heights, while four suicide drones also targeted Similan heights this morning.

In March, Iran fired missiles at Erbil. No one was killed but missiles did damage to some residential buildings. Iran claimed it used 12 ballistic missiles in that attack and targeted an Israeli intelligence center. At the time it was seen as a response to an Israeli airstrike in Syria that had killed two IRGC officers or to an suspected Israeli attack in February on a drone base at an airfield in western Iran.

The attacks on Erbil have taken place at a time when Tehran is demanding the removal of the iRGC from a US list of terrorist organizations amid stalled nuclear talks.

An exclusive Reuters Report said days later that the purpose of the missile strike might have been meant to derail a gas pipeline project to pump Kurdish gas to Turkey and Europe. A claim that was denied by Nour News, which is close to the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Ali Shamkhani.