A series of drone strikes have targeted bases of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Erbil in recent weeks, launched by Iran-backed Shiite militias condemning American support for Israel in its war on Gaza.
“The Kurdistan Region is facing a grave threat of drone attacks becoming a daily thing,” Parwez Rahim, scholar and international affairs expert, told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih.
“The Shiite militias now see the Kurdistan Region as a second Israel. No matter how much they disagree with each other on other matters, they have the same stance towards the Kurdistan Region in this regard,” he added.
Two drone strikes targeting the bases in Erbil have been intercepted since Sunday. Two explosive-laden drones targeted a Peshmerga base in Erbil province’s Pirmam on Saturday evening, without resulting in any casualties.
The attack was strongly condemned by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), who held the Iraqi federal government responsible for the “cowardly attacks” of government-linked “outlaw” groups.
“Erbil and the Kurdistan Democratic Party [KDP] are the targets of these drone attacks. The other parties in the Kurdistan Region have not even condemned the attacks in a statement, including the attack on the Pirmam Peshmerga base,” said Mohammed Ihsan, Senior Research Fellow at King's College London.
“Due to divisions inside the Kurdish camp, we do not even have a shared team to address these violations on an international level, and Kurdish lawmakers in Baghdad have never been this weak,” he added.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups backed by Iran and affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has claimed responsibility for most of the recent attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria.
The group did not claim the attack on the Pirmam Peshmerga base.
“There is no targeting of the Peshmerga forces… They are an official force and cannot be targeted by the Iraqi resistance,” Haider al-Lami, a member of the Harakat al-Nujaba political bureau, told Rudaw. Harakat al-Nujaba is a part of the Islamic Resistance and is one of the groups accused by Washington of carrying out the drone attacks.
Lami referred to the presence of US troops in Iraq as an “occupation”, stressing that drone and rocket attacks will continue to target the American bases inside and outside Iraq until the “genocide” in Gaza is stopped.
Around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against ISIS, which once held swathes of land in Iraq and Syria but was declared territorially defeated in 2019.
Ihsan described the Iraqi federal government’s response to the attacks on Erbil as “weak”, criticizing Baghdad for issuing a statement blasting the KRG’s remarks instead of addressing the strikes.
Following the attack in Pirmam, KRG spokesperson Peshawa Hawramani accused Iraq of being “silent and powerless” in its handling of the militias, and yet “brave to cut the livelihood of the people of Kurdistan,” while using government money to fund the militias. The KRG has blamed Baghdad for delays in paying its civil servants.
The Iraqi government responded strongly to the KRG’s statement, saying it contained “irresponsible accusations” and “misleading information and baseless lies,” stressing that jumping to such conclusions harms Erbil-Baghdad relations. It also reiterated its commitment to pursuing the perpetrators of the attacks.
“If the Kurdistan Region does not resolve its internal issues, it cannot handle these attacks and their threats and repercussions,” said Ziryan Rojhelati, director of Rudaw Research Center.
A suicide drone in late December targeted forces of coalition based near Erbil International Airport, wounding three US service members, one critically.
US forces retaliated with airstrikes targeting multiple locations of pro-Iran militia groups in Babil. The Iraqi federal government quickly condemned the US strikes, saying they targeted Iraqi military bases, killing one and injuring 18 others.
The Iraqi government said that its security forces are dedicated to safeguarding diplomatic missions in the country and that Baghdad has previously defined the attacks against them as “hostile acts,” but stressed that the US airstrikes are “unacceptable” and a “violation” of the country’s sovereignty.
Iran-aligned militia groups have targeted US interests in Iraq and Syria with rockets and drones over 100 times since October 17.
