Rockets Hit Emirati-Owned Gas Complex in Iraqi Kurdistan
BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – A number of Katyusha rockets have struck a gas complex in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, in the latest attack to target the facility owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) energy firm Dana Gas.
“It is still not yet clear if there was any damage” in the Monday evening attack on the Khor Mor complex, said Ramak Ramadan, district chief of Chamchamal where the facility is located.
The gas complex lies between the northern Iraqi cities of Kirkuk and Sulaimaniyah, in a region administered by Kurdish authorities.
No individual or group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
Sadiq Mohammed, an official from the adjacent Qadr Qaram district, said in a statement to the Kurdish-language Kurdistan 24 television news network that the attack was carried out using three Katyusha rockets, without causing any casualties.
Other reports said five rockets were used in the attack.
Earlier in June, the Emirati-owned facility was targeted three separate times by rockets that did not cause casualties or damage. No one claimed responsibility for those attacks either.
A Katyusha rocket on June 25 targeted the Khor Mor gas complex.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has strongly denounced the recent attack on a tourist resort in Iraq’s northern, semi-autonomous Kurdistan region that Baghdad blames on Turkey.
“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the attack in Duhok province of Iraq on July 20,” said the statement by UNSC President Ronaldo Costa Filho on Monday.
The statement added that the members of the Security Council “also expressed their support for the Iraqi authorities in their investigations, calling on all member states to cooperate with Baghdad in this regard.”
The attack on the district of Zakho on Wednesday killed at least nine Iraqi tourists, including a child, and wounded 20 others.
Turkey, which has many military bases in northern Iraq and often carries out cross-border military operations without the Arab country’s consent, has denied it was behind Wednesday’s attack that claimed civilian lives, adding that it targets militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK.
Baghdad has repeatedly condemned Ankara’s military operations in northern Iraq.