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EXPLOSIVE-LADEN drones were launched at a military base hosting US forces inside Erbil International Airport in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq today.
The attack, one of several on US forces in the space of a week, caused the closure and evacuation of the airport. Footage showed fire services struggling to contain a large fire at the site of the drone strike.
No details of casualties or the extent of the damage were available, but the Kurdistan Counter-Terrorism Service confirmed that the attack was carried out with “two booby-trapped drones.”
Local media reports said that the strikes triggered sirens at the US consulate, which is also housed in the airport grounds.
Kurdistan Region vice-president Sheikh Jaafar Mustafa condemned the “cowardly attack” and said investigations to find the perpetrators were under way.
“The safety of coalition forces in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is our priority,” he said.
Sources said that channels associated with the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) on the social media app Telegram carried claims that 20 rockets and three drones were used in the attack.
Later today, a drone hit Syria’s largest oilfield, al-Omar, in the east of the country near the Iraqi border.
Initial reports showed little damage to the US-protected site, which is close to the former Conoco gas facility where US troops are stationed.
The attacks came soon after four PMF soldiers were killed in US drone strikes on Syria and Iraq last week.
Resistance forces have vowed revenge for the killings, which they said undermined joint efforts by the PMF and Iraqi troops in the fight against Isis and other jihadist groups in the region.
Earlier this week, the Ain al-Assad military base in Iraq was attacked and a US convoy came under fire on its way to Fallujah.
The US’s continued presence in the country has been condemned by newly appointed Russian ambassador to Iraq Elbrus Kutrashev.
The Iraqi parliament voted unanimously for the withdrawal of all US forces in the wake of the assassination of Iranian Quds Force Commander General Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport early last year.
