Tasnim – The Iranian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned a terrorist attack on members of the Turkish consulate in Iraq’s city of Erbil that killed three people.

In a statement on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi expressed sympathy with the Turkish government, nation, and families of the victims.

“Terrorism is a horrendous phenomenon that has inflicted extensive damages on regional states,” he noted.

Mousavi also stressed that the only way to combat terrorism is concerted action by the international community by putting an end to the political, financial, ideological, and arms support for the terrorist groups.

A Turkish diplomat and two Iraqis were killed on Wednesday in an armed attack on a restaurant in the Kurdish-controlled region of Iraq, according to the Turkish and Iraqi governments.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed the death of an official of the Turkish consulate, and said that one Iraqi had been killed and another seriously wounded. The second Iraqi died later.

The two Iraqis worked for the consulate, said Dr. Ahmed al-Sahaf, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman. One was a guard for the Turkish diplomat.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the shooting or why. Iraqi and Turkish authorities said they were investigating the attack, IFP reported.