Iraqi security sources announced yesterday evening, Thursday, that the defense systems at Ain Al-Asad air base, which hosts US forces, intercepted and shot down a drone while it was flying near the base.
The sources stated that it was not clear whether the drone was on a reconnaissance mission or if it was carrying explosives, while the international coalition confirmed that it was indeed armed.
The sources added that there were no reports of casualties or damage.
This incident comes just a day after the counter-terrorism agency in the Kurdistan region of Iraq confirmed that 3 missiles fell near an oil refinery in the city of Erbil, without causing any losses or damage, and without any party claiming responsibility for the attack.
In a statement, the agency stated that the missiles were launched by unknown persons from the Hamdaniya district in Nineveh Governorate, and they landed near the Kurusk residential complex, the Great Zab River and the Kurkusk oil refinery in the Khabat district, west of the neighboring Erbil governorate.
Over the past months, Erbil has been repeatedly attacked by missiles and drones loaded with explosives, mostly targeting the international coalition forces stationed at a military base inside Erbil Airport.
It is noteworthy that since the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of the Popular Mobilization, by an American strike at Baghdad airport in early 2020, dozens of attacks have targeted American interests in Iraq with missiles or sometimes drones, including the ocean. The US embassy in Baghdad and Iraqi military bases that house forces from the international coalition, such as Ain al-Assad in the west of the country or Erbil airport in the north.
And Iraq officially announced on the ninth of last December that the presence of foreign “combat” forces in the country ended at the end of the year 2021 and that the new mission of the international coalition is advisory and training only, in implementation of an agreement announced for the first time by US President Joe Biden in July 2021 In Washington during a visit to Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.