Fingers point to Turkey for deadly drone strike on Iraqi Kurdistan's Arbat airport

At least three security members were killed and three more wounded after a suspected Turkish drone airstrike on an airport near Sulaimaniyah province in the Iraqi Kurdistan region on the afternoon of Monday, 18 September.

Three members of the Counter Terrorism Group (CTG), affiliated to the ruling Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), were killed, and three others wounded when a drone targeted the Arbat Airport in the Iraqi Kurdistan region Monday afternoon, Kurdish and Iraqi officials said without clearly identifying the country behind the attack. 

"Today, the agricultural airport of Arbat in Sulaimani was targeted by the invaders and enemies of peace and security in the Kurdistan Region with a drone," the CTG said in a statement, which also did not name the country that carried out the attack. 

"Unfortunately, three of our comrades and heroic Peshmergas of Kurdistan were martyred, and three others were wounded… a thorough investigation into this terrorist crime has begun in coordination with coalition forces with representatives of countries in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq," the statement added. 

The airport, located 29 km east of Sulaimaniyah city, was agricultural and run by Iraq's federal government. The CTG recently used the airport as a training base, Mustafa Chawrash, peshmerga commander of the PUK's 70 brigades, told Rudaw.

The group also indicated possible intra-Kurdish spies who might have collaborated with the attacking side, asserting they would punish all those who were behind it.

"We will punish any spy who has helped the enemy, take revenge on our martyrs, and not allow their blood to be wasted. For the safety of the investigation, we will keep the information confidential, and in the future, we will reveal the truth to the Kurdish people," the statement added. 

The New Arab has visited the scene, but Kurdish security forces were quick to seal off the area. TNA also contacted several local Kurdish officials, but they refused to speak on the issue. 

Spokesperson of Iraq's army, Yahya Rasul, in a statement, said, "A drone has entered the Iraqi airspace via the frontier with Turkey on 17:00 (local time), and it bombed Arbat airport in Sulaimaniyah province in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, leading to the martyrdom of three brave men from the CTG and wounding three others."

Rasul also asserted that "the assault was a breach of Iraq's sovereignty, security and integrity". He also said the attack was "a clear breach of the international laws and principles of the United Nations".

"Such repeated attacks are not consistent with the principles of good neighbourly relations among countries and threaten Iraq's efforts to build good and balanced political, economic, and security relations with its neighbours," Rasul added in an indirect hint that Turkey was behind the attack on the airport. 

On his part, Bafel Jalal Talabani, President of PUK, in a statement, called on the Iraqi federal government "to fulfil its constitutional and national duty to protect Iraqi territory and airspace, including the Kurdistan region and to no longer allow these violations to happen again."

He also called the international community "to take a serious stance and unite with us to stop these terrorist acts."

In a statement on Thursday, the Iraqi presidency strongly condemned the attack and accused Turkey of being behind the attack, asserting his office would ask the Iraqi government to summon the Turkish Ambassador to Baghdad to submit him an official note of protest. Turkey has yet to announce any formal stance on the issue.

Mazloum Abdi, a Kurdish commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), survived a drone attack in the vicinity of Sulaymaniyah International Airport early in April this year, just days after Turkey decided to ban flights to the airport on claims that the airport has been used by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for "terrorist" acts.

On his part, Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) from the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), in a statement, said he was "deeply saddened by the incident at Arbat Airport" and called on the related authorities to conduct a detailed investigation into the incident and reveal "the facts" for the public.

"We strongly condemn any infringement on the sovereignty of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, as well as any unlawful actions that threaten the security and stability of the Kurdistan Region," Barzani added.

PM Masrour Barzani subtly hinted at a possible justification for yesterday's lethal Turkish drone attack. His reference to 'illegal actions' has raised questions about the nature of activities of the PUK's CTU at a civilian airport and possible presence of other parties. https://t.co/C8bdzRy6o6

— Renwar Najm (@RenwarNajm) September 19, 2023

The KDP, which controls the Kurdish government in Erbil, and the PUK, which dominates areas along the Iranian border and is headquartered in Sulaimaniya, are the two main parties ruling the Iraqi Kurdish region.

Both parties have their separate peshmerga forces, security and intelligence agencies. They fought an internal conflict from 1994 until 1998, in which thousands of fighters and innocent civilians from both sides were killed, wounded and displaced.  

"PM Masrour Barzani subtly hinted at a possible justification for yesterday's lethal Turkish drone attack. His reference to 'illegal actions' has raised questions about the nature of activities of the PUK's CTU at a civilian airport and possible presence of other parties," Kurdish journalist Renwar Najm said in a post on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter.

In December 2022, Talabani visited northeast Syria and met with Abdi and senior political leaders in northeast Syria. He also supported Kurds in Turkey and Syria during a speech marking Newroz celebrations on 21 March.
Turkey and its Western allies blocklist the PKK as a terrorist group.

But, despite shrill complaints from Ankara, Washington supports the SDF, which is the Kurdish administration's de facto army in the northeast and led the battle that dislodged militants of the Islamic State from its last scrap of territory in Syria in 2019.

Ankara regards the YPG, a dominant faction in the Syrian Kurdish administration, as an offshoot of the PKK and has mounted repeated armed incursions to force its fighters out of areas near the border.