Kurdish counter-terrorism units say they downed an explosives-packed drone early Monday just outside Erbil International Airport, which houses troops from the U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State.
The device was intercepted at 2:20 a.m. local time (23:20 GMT Sunday) with no casualties or damage reported, the Kurdistan Region Security Council said in a statement.
It is the second drone intercepted near the airport this month. On 3 July, authorities blamed Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)—a network of mostly pro-Iran militias now incorporated into the regular armed forces—for a similar incident. Baghdad dismissed that accusation as “entirely unacceptable” and “unsupported by evidence.”
Rocket and drone strikes have periodically targeted coalition sites across Iraq, reflecting wider regional rivalries. Although violence has ebbed in recent years, a surge of unmanned aerial attacks in recent weeks underscores the country’s fragile security gains.