ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A pro-Iran armed group in Iraq said Sunday it carried out a drone attack targeting US military sites in Erbil, as Iran vowed to retaliate for the killing of its supreme leader.
The pro-Iran Saraya Awliya al-Dam (Guardians of Blood Brigades) group said in a statement dated Sunday that its “mujahideen” conducted an operation “with a squadron of drones” against “American bases in Erbil.”
Early Sunday, a large plume of smoke rose over Erbil following the strike. Casualties and damage were not immediately clear.
The statement said the attack was “in fulfillment of our religious duty and in support of the Islamic Republic of Iran against the Zionist-American aggression” and “defense of Iraq’s sovereignty.”
The claim came as pro-Iran armed groups vowed retaliation following US and Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday. Other missiles and drones were intercepted by US-led coalition forces over the city on the same day.
Also on Saturday, the pro-Iran group Kataib Hezbollah said it would “soon begin targeting” American bases after a Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) base it uses in Iraq’s central Babil province was struck several times the same day. On Thursday, the group warned the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) against cooperating with what it described as “hostile foreign forces.”
“This will impose additional burdens upon it that may threaten its security and future,” the group said, calling on its fighters to “prepare to wage a war of attrition that may be long-term, exceeding the estimates of the US administration.”
Iran began its response less than three hours after the start of the US and Israeli strikes on Saturday, targeting sites in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the Kurdistan Region, according to Iranian state media.
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In this file photo, German Soldiers receive a pre-flight brief before boarding the US Army Boeing CH-47 Chinook at Erbil Air Base, Iraq, 31 October 2025 (US Army photo by Capt. Bernard Jenkins Jr.)
Published date: 24 February 2026 11:42 GMT|Last update: 4 days 8 hours ago
A few days ago, amidst heightened US–Iran tensions, a military helicopter landed at the Erbil airport in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Although Western troops are rarely seen on the city’s streets, Erbil Air Base is heavily staffed with soldiers, and military helicopters fly overhead every day.
Now, this airport could potentially become a target for Iran if the situation escalates.
Since 2018, the Kurdistan region, including Erbil’s airport, has come under attack by drones, rockets and ballistic missiles from Iran and its proxies.
In July last year, a suicide drone was shot down above the airport amidst attacks on oil fields in the region. On 21 January, a drone also targeted an Iranian Kurdish opposition party, killing one Kurdish fighter.
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The Erbil base has a large target on it not only due to US withdrawal from other Iraqi bases but also because attacking it provides the Iranians with an opportunity to make a declaration to local US partners in the region as to the cost of working with the Americans,” Nicholas Heras, the senior director for the Strategy and Programs Unit in the Academic Division at the New Lines Institute, told MEE.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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