ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraqi authorities on Thursday confirmed that crude oil loading continues at its ports as normal, denying earlier reports that a drone attack targeted a ship at the Basra terminal and saying that the attack fell outside the country's territorial waters.

Earlier on Thursday, Reuters reported that crude oil loading was suspended at Iraq’s southeastern Basra terminal following an alleged “drone crash" into an oil tanker.

“The ship that was targeted by an unidentified drone in regional waters was outside the boundaries of Iraqi ports," a source from the Iraqi ports authority told state media.

The authority confirmed that “unloading and handling operations within Iraqi ports are continuing without any interruption."

Following the Reuters article, Iraq’s oil ministry told The New Region that investigations are ongoing into the veracity of the reports, while stressing that operations are ongoing at the country’s southern ports.

Since the regional conflict erupted in February, Iraq's southern ports have come under repeated drone attacks targeting oil tankers in its territorial waters. Baghdad has strongly condemned the attacks, which have coincided with disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

On Wednesday, another drone crashed at the southern al-Faw port, which Baghdad said caused no casualties and that security authorities have launched an investigation.

As tensions reignite between the US and Iran, Iranian attacks on regional countries have resumed. The Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil was targeted by at least eight bomb-laden drones late Wednesday, all of which were intercepted.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi on Thursday strongly condemned what he described as the "malicious" attack on Erbil and vowed to "exert every effort," in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government, to prevent similar incidents from recurring.