BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – A drone attack has hit near U.S. troops stationed at Erbil International Airport in northern Iraq, Iraqi Kurdish security officials say.
The internal security service for Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, of which Erbil is the capital, initially said three rockets had hit near the airport.
A second statement by the Kurdish counter-terrorism force said the attack had been carried out by explosive-laden drones.
There were no immediate reports of casualties. Witnesses said they heard at least six explosions in the area.
The airport in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region, has come under attack several times in the past year, including by drones carrying explosives.
Iraq’s Sabereen News outlet, affiliated with Iraq’s resistance groups, said a “massive explosion” rang out across the area during the incident.
The area’s sirens went off and smoke was seen billowing out, it added, and also reported that a considerable military and security buildup followed the strikes.
Sky News Arabia said the airport had been shut off to all flights for fear of further attacks.
Kurdish-language television channel, Kurdistan 24 confirmed that the location had been attacked “by at least three drones.”
Iraq’s resistance groups have, however, significantly increased their attacks on the American interests in the country since early last year, when a U.S. drone attack targeted the capital Baghdad.
Following the American drone attack, the Iraqi parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of a law mandating full withdrawal of all foreign forces from the country’s soil.
Meanwhile, six Daesh terrorists were killed in airstrikes on Sunday in Iraq’s Kirkuk province, while four federal police members were killed earlier in an overnight Daesh attack in the province, the Iraqi military said.
A fierce clash erupted earlier in the day when Daesh terrorists attacked the positions of the federal police in Kirkuk province, but the security forces sent a drone on a reconnaissance mission to the scene and spotted the attackers, enabling the Iraqi warplanes to conduct three airstrikes on Daesh positions, a statement by the media office of Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said.