Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched a missile attack against what they called “anti-Iranian terrorist groups” in a northern Iraqi city, setting off large explosions and sirens, including at the American Consulate, around midnight on Tuesday.

The strike in the city of Erbil killed at least four civilians, according to the Kurdistan Regional Security Council in Iraq, and air traffic was diverted briefly, officials said.

A separate ballistic missile attack hit targets in Syria connected to the Islamic State, the Guards said.

A statement by the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps said that the missile strike in Erbil had been aimed at “the destruction of espionage headquarters and places that anti-Iranian terrorist groups” used to plan a suicide bombing attack in Kerman, Iran, that killed 86 people this month at a memorial procession for Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani. The Guards also cited an assault in December on a police headquarters in Rask, Iran, that killed at least 11 officers.

Some Iranian leaders initially appeared to blame Israel for the attack at the Suleimani memorial, though the Islamic State claimed responsibility for it. In a statement later on Tuesday, the Revolutionary Guards appeared to return to the narrative that blamed Israel, saying the target in Erbil had been the local headquarters for Mossad, Israel’s spy agency.

The attacks at the memorial and at the police station were seen as a signs of Iran’s vulnerability to infiltration by extremist groups despite its formidable intelligence service and police capabilities.