A drone packed with explosives was shot down near Arbil airport on Monday, with two more later hitting an oil field in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, Kurdish security forces said.
“At 02:20 (1120 GMT) an explosive-laden drone was downed near Arbil International Airport, without causing casualties or damage,” said the counterterrorism services of the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.
The drone was the second intercepted this month near the airport, which hosts US troops from an international anti-jihadist coalition.
Later on Monday, authorities announced that two drones had hit an oil field.
“At 20:20 and 20:25 (1720 and 1725 GMT) two explosive-laden drones fell in the Khurmala oil field in Arbil province without causing casualties,” the Kurdish counterterrorism services said.
Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said in a statement that “two drones targeted” the Khurmala field, causing material damage.
It added that it was coordinating with Kurdistan’s security forces to investigate the attack.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the three drones.
In the past few weeks, Iraq has seen a spate of drone and rocket attacks.
On July 3, authorities said a drone was downed near Arbil airport, with the regional interior ministry blaming the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) for the attack.
The PMF — Hashed al-Shaabi in Arabic — is a coalition of pro-Iran former paramilitaries now integrated into the regular armed forces.
The federal government in Baghdad rejected the accusation against “an official Iraqi security institution”.
Arbil airport was frequently targeted by rocket and drone attacks in previous years.
Long plagued by conflict, Iraq has been a frequent battleground for such attacks, often linked to regional proxy struggles.
The country has only recently begun to regain a measure of stability after decades of war and upheaval.
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© Agence France-Presse
