INVESTIGATIONS are under way after a rocket attack on the Khor Mor gas field in the Chamchamal district of Slemani in Iraqi Kurdistan on Monday night, officials said today. 

Production has not been affected, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) minister Ahmed Mufti said, after three Katyusha missiles struck the compound. 

No-one was injured in the attack, the fifth time the oil field, where expansion work is under way, has been targeted. Missiles struck Khor Mor last month, halting operations in the field, which is owned by a United Arab Emirates firm. 

No group had taken responsibility for the attack when the Morning Star went to print, but it is suspected that it may have been carried out by Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF). 

Tehran was blamed for an attack on a villa belonging to the Iraqi-Kurdish KAR Group oil refinery owner Baz Karim Barzinji in the Kurdish regional capital Erbil earlier this year.

Iran said it was targeting bases belonging to Israel’s Mossad spy agency, accusing the spooks of using Erbil as a base from which to attack the country.  

The region has been described as a tinderbox waiting to explode with a number of competing factions and interests. 

Baghdad and Erbil both have their eyes on the fossil-fuel revenue, while the PMF has vowed to drive the US out, demanding its forces leaves Iraq’s sovereign territory and deeming its members legitimate targets.

Tensions have increased in the wake of Turkey’s missile strike on a tourist resort in Duhok province last week in which nine people were killed, including a one-year-old child. 

Iraq has demanded an apology for the attack and called for all Turkish soldiers to depart, with Baghdad saying that Ankara has some 4,000 troops scattered across 100 posts in Iraqi Kurdistan, where it is pursuing an ongoing campaign, unmindful of civilian casualties, nominally targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Despite evidence to the contrary, bullish Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has continued to deny its involvement in the attack, blaming the PKK.

Iraqi combat troops are reported to be preparing to mobilise to the border alongside Kurdish peshmerga forces to prevent further incursions.