(Arbat) Three members of the anti-terrorist services of Iraqi Kurdistan were killed Monday in a drone strike that hit an airfield near Sulaymaniyah, this security institution announced in a press release without identifying the perpetrators of the bombing.
The drone strike targeted the Arbat airfield, near Sulaymaniyah, the second city of autonomous Kurdistan in northern Iraq, from where planes used for spreading pesticides take off.
“Unfortunately, the bombing killed three of our peshmerga comrades from the anti-terrorist services,” according to the text which also reports three injured.
A “thorough investigation” has been opened into this “terrorist crime committed by foreign servants and local spies”, it is added.
“To protect the investigation, we will keep the information confidential. In the future we will reveal the truth to the people of Kurdistan,” the statement said.
An AFP correspondent who went to the surroundings of the airfield was able to see a prefabricated warehouse destroyed and partly charred by the bombing.
This is a rare attack against the security forces of Kurdistan, even if in this region, the major Turkish or Iranian neighbors are often singled out for drone strikes targeting their respective oppositions, established in the sector for years. decades.
“Security threats”
On Sunday, in northern Iraq, at least four members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the Turkish PKK, were killed by a drone strike carried out by the “Turkish army”, according to the authorities of autonomous Kurdistan.
Over the past 25 years, Turkey has installed several dozen military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to fight against the PKK, classified as a “terrorist” group by Ankara and several Western countries.
In April 2023, Iraq accused Turkey of having carried out a “bombing” near Sulaymaniyah airport.
This strike took place while American soldiers and the commander of a Syrian coalition dominated by the Kurds and allied to Washington, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were at the airport.
Iraqi Kurdistan is also targeted by Iranian strikes.
A year ago, Tehran repeatedly bombed the positions of different groups of the Iranian Kurdish opposition, accused of being involved in the protest movement triggered after the death in detention of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd arrested by the police morals in September 2022.
Bafel Jalal Talabani, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the historic Kurdish party in charge in Sulaymaniyah, condemned a “terrorist attack” on Monday.
“Faced with repeated violations, it is the duty of all political parties in Kurdistan to jointly face security threats and challenges and to protect Kurdistan from its enemies,” he said in a press release.