Awliya al-Dam Brigade: Iranian militia carries out attack on Erbil airport

Amira Sherif

A spokesman for the international coalition forces announced that a foreign civilian contractor was killed and five civilians and an American soldier were wounded in a missile attack on Erbil.

In addition, Kurdistan security found the trucks that were used in launching the rockets, noting that four Katyusha rockets were found that had not been launched towards Erbil.

Kurdish security officials said earlier that at least three mortars were used in the attack, explaining that initial investigations later showed that the remnants of the projectiles that fell in some areas were missiles.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi directed the formation of a joint investigation committee with the competent authorities in the Kurdistan region of Iraq in order to find out the party behind the attack on Erbil International Airport.

Sources in the Kurdish Peshmerga forces said that at least three rockets landed near Erbil International Airport in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, wounding three people.

A statement by the Interior Ministry in Kurdistan said that a number of rockets were fired towards Erbil and its suburbs at around 9:30 pm local time and wounded some people, without giving further details.

On September 30, 2020, six Katyusha rockets landed near Erbil airport, an attack that the Iraqi Kurdistan’s Counter-Terrorism Service blamed on pro-Iranian militias.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister and Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Hoshyar Zebari considered the attack an escalation and aggression, saying that the perpetrators will face the consequences.

The Awliya al-Dam Brigade, an Iraqi militia loyal to Iran, claimed responsibility for the missile attack that targeted Erbil airport and its surroundings in Kurdistan. A statement issued by the militia said that they “were able to carry out a qualitative operation against the American occupation in our beloved north, as we approached the occupation base (Al-Harir) in Erbil with a distance of 7 kilometers and were able to direct a devastating blow of 24 missiles that hit their targets accurately after the CRAM system and the occupation missiles failed to intercept them, which led to severe damage to the vehicles, stores and aircraft of the occupation and the fall of many casualties in their ranks.”

The statement added, “The American occupation will not be safe from our strikes in any inch of the homeland, even in Kurdistan, where we promise you other qualitative operations.”

Previously, this militia claimed a number of attacks that targeted international forces and United Nations missions. The United States had designated the Iraqi Kata’ib Hezbollah a terrorist organization and launched a number of strikes against it.

It is worth noting that the Awliya al-Dam Brigade has appeared in recent months and is linked to the pro-Iranian Iraqi Kata’ib Hezbollah, according to experts.