ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An explosive-laden drone was brought down early Friday morning near a Peshmerga position in Kirkuk province, the latest incident in a string of drone activity that has created friction between Erbil and Baghdad. The drone was downed at 1:35 am in the Prde (Altun Kupri) subdistrict. “Fortunately, no human or material casualties resulted from it,” said the Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD), which is part of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC). Prde is on the Erbil-Kirkuk highway and is where supporters of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, along with members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and the Badr Organization, held protests in late June against the appointment of a Kurdish woman as municipal director. The demonstrations disrupted traffic and led to brief clashes. It remains unclear where the drone originated from. Earlier on Thursday, Ahmad Latif, spokesperson for Unit 70 - a Peshmerga force affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) - said another drone was shot down over their base just outside Sulaimani on the road to Kirkuk. There has been a wave of drone activity across the Kurdistan Region since a US-brokered ceasefire between Iran and Israel took effect on June 24. Multiple explosive-laden drones have been intercepted or crashed. Last week, the Kurdistan Region’s Interior Ministry accused Baghdad of failing to prevent repeated drone incursions. A day earlier, it accused the PMF of involvement in the incidents. Baghdad rejected the accusations, calling them “unacceptable” and defending the PMF as a state force.
