In a tragic incident, three members of the Iraqi counter-terrorism service lost their lives while three others sustained injuries in a drone strike on the Arbid military airport in Iraq's Kurdistan region. The drone reportedly entered Iraqi airspace through Turkey's border. The strike resulted in the deaths of six individuals, with two members of the Kurdish security forces wounded and rushed to a military hospital.

-The airport, located 50km east of Sulaimaniya, is frequently used for helicopters. Iraqi Kurdish security forces promptly sealed off the area, and the identities of the deceased remain unknown. Initial evidence suggests that a Turkish drone was deployed against a suspected Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) target. Turkey has a history of carrying out air strikes on PKK militants in northern Iraq, maintaining numerous outposts in Iraqi territory.

The drone strike has been condemned by Bafel Talabani, President of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and Iraqi Kurdistan's Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, who called for intervention from the federal government to prevent such attacks from recurring. In response, Iraqi military spokesman Yahya Rasool has stressed Iraq's right to bring an end to these violations. Baghdad will also send a joint security team to Sulaimaniya to conduct an investigation into the drone strike. This incident follows reports of Iranian threats and drone strikes in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with Iran demanding the removal of Kurdish dissidents from five specific areas in northern Iraq.