Explosive drone targeting coalition troops in Iraq shot down
Erbil International Airport. Photo: EIA
Erbil – Officials in northern Iraq announced that an “explosive drone” targeting the international anti-jihadist coalition in Iraq was downed on Wednesday near Erbil airport, the latest such attack against foreign troops in the country.
The drone, launched in the evening “by outlaw militias, was shot down at the military base of the international coalition”, the anti-terror service of the autonomous region announced.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-linked armed groups, claimed an attack at the airport on Wednesday evening.
The group, which opposes US support for Israel, has claimed most of the surging number of attacks against foreign troops since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
The groups are close to Tehran, which does not recognise Israel and provides substantial support to Hamas.
Washington has counted more than 100 attacks against its forces in Iraq and Syria since October 17.
The United States has responded to several of those with strikes against pro-Iran groups in Iraq.
On January 4, a US drone strike in central Baghdad killed two members of Harakat Al-Nujaba, a faction of Hashed Al-Shaabi — a collection of mainly pro-Iran former paramilitary units now integrated into Iraq’s armed forces.
The following day, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, whose government is backed by Tehran-aligned parties, repeated his “firm” determination to bring an end to the deployment of foreign troops in Iraq.
The coalition, led by Washington, has been in Iraq and Syria since 2014 to fight the jihadists of the Islamic State group.
There are approximately 2,500 US troops in Iraq and around 900 in Syria.