ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) struck and destroyed a US surveillance balloon flying over Erbil in the early hours of Wednesday morning, two Kurdish security sources told Rudaw English.
The attack on the Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) came amid a new round of tensions between the United States and Iran, with both sides exchanging heavy fire overnight and into the early hours of Wednesday.
The IRGC fired several drones targeting the US base at Erbil International Airport and a base and residential camp belonging to an Iranian Kurdish opposition group on the outskirts of Erbil.
Two security sources confirmed to Rudaw English that the TARS was struck overnight as the base came under attack from several IRGC drones.
The TARS, which has been a ubiquitous part of the Erbil skyline, was not visible on Wednesday morning.
The IRGC said in a statement that its ground forces “carried out a combined missile and drone attack on US bases in Erbil, destroying a maintenance facility and warehouses containing technical equipment belonging to the US military, as well as destroying the system used to guide a US surveillance balloon at the base. The IRGC Ground Forces also set the base’s fuel storage tanks ablaze and killed a number of the attackers.”
The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) said in a statement that two of its camps, one in Jezhnikan, 20 kilometres north of Erbil, and another in the Balisan heights, were struck by three drones. The group did not report casualties.
The strikes on Erbil came as US Central Command began an aerial campaign against southern Iran on Tuesday night, targeting more than 100 locations, according to Axios. Iran struck back by firing several barrages of missiles at US forces stationed in Jordan, Bahrain, UAE and Kuwait.
Tehran said at least 11 people were killed, including four who died during a wedding ceremony in Sirik, near the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran claimed that its missile strikes killed a number of US personnel, but there was no confirmation from the US side.
Both Tehran and Washington said on Wednesday morning that they had completed their exchange of fire and threatened further escalation if new attacks took place.
President Donald Trump said on Truth Social following the strikes that the US was in “total control of the Strait of Hormuz,” while describing the Iranian economy as collapsing.
The Kurdistan Region has been caught up in the war between the United States and Iran. Since late February, when the US and Israel began their attacks on Iran, the region has been targeted by hundreds of drones and missiles.
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