“A bomb-laden drone targeted the Turkish army’s Zilkan military base in Bashiqa district of Nineveh province, and there were no casualties,” the Erbil-based Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD), also known as Kurdistan CT, said in a statement.
Zilkan military base has been frequently targeted in recent years, and the attacks have largely been attributed to Iran-backed Iraqi militias. The attacks, however, have simmered down over the past year.
The presence of Turkish forces in the base has been widely condemned by the Iraqi government, and tensions reached a boiling point in July 2022 when a deadly shelling in the Kurdistan Region’s Zakho blamed on Turkey killed nine Iraqi tourists and injured tens of others.
That incident harmed diplomatic relations between the two countries, with Iraq filing a complaint against Turkey at the United Nations Security Council.
Iraq has also frequently condemned Turkey for its military incursions into the Kurdistan Region under the pretext of targeting Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants based in the Region’s northern mountainous regions.
But Baghdad also labeled the PKK a banned organization last year, under pressure from Ankara.
