ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A suicide drone was intercepted near Erbil International Airport early Monday, continuing the string of aerial attacks that have targeted the Kurdistan Region for over two weeks.

Reports emerged of loud booms heard near the airport in the early hours of Monday, with several eyewitnesses capturing footage of falling projectiles over Erbil’s skies, speculating there were multiple aerial objects.

The Erbil-based Kurdistan Counterterrorism Directorate said in a statement that a bomb-laden drone was shot down near the international airport at around 2:20 AM, without resulting in any injuries or damage.

Ahmed Hoshyar, director of the Erbil International Airport, told The New Region that no projectiles had fallen into the compound, and confirmed that the attack did not disrupt any scheduled flights.

A series of aerial attacks by unidentified actors have targeted the Kurdistan Region and Kirkuk since late June, coming days after the declaration of a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

The attacks have sparked tensions between Erbil and Baghdad, with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) decrying the federal authorities’ silence amid the ongoing strikes.

In a statement last week, the KRG’s interior ministry denied reports by Iran-affiliated media claiming that an alleged Israeli base in Erbil was the target of one of the attacks, calling them “far from the truth,” and accusing the groups affiliated with the Iraqi state-linked Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) of being behind the recent aerial attacks.

Sabah al-Numan, spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces, responded to the KRG statement, saying the accusations “against an official Iraqi security institution is unacceptable, condemned, and unacceptable under any pretext.”

“The expectation from the relevant parties of the federal government is that when there are threats against the Kurdistan Region or any other area of Iraq, necessary measures should be taken to reveal the truth and prevent the recurrence of threats and punish the perpetrators. Unfortunately, however, we feel there is a kind of cover-up and hiding from responsibility regarding the security excesses that are carried out against the Kurdistan Region,” said the KRG interior ministry in a second statement.

Since 2022, Iran and its proxies have carried out several attacks on the Kurdistan Region under the pretext of targeting bases of Israeli intelligence (Mossad). Erbil has repeatedly denied the presence of Israeli bases in the Region.

Many PMF groups are backed by Iran.