File image.
A series of drone strikes targeted Iraq’s Kurdistan Region on March 14, hitting an oil refinery and the consulate of the United Arab Emirates.
The attack on the Lanaz refinery close to Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, sparked a fire. Reuters reported, citing Kurdish provincial officials, that operations at the facility — which process roughly 100,000 barrels of oil per day — were halted.
Work will remain suspended until the extent of the damage is assessed, officials at the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Natural Resources told the news agency.
At around the same time, a drone struck the UAE consulate in Erbil. The attack sparked a fire, but no casualties were reported. It
Abu Dhabi called on Kurdish and Iraqi authorities to “investigate the circumstances surrounding this attack, identify those responsible, and take all necessary measures to ensure the perpetrators are held accountable.”
Rudaw reported earlier in the day that at least seven drones were intercepted by United States air defenses over the Kurdistan region.
The attacks came after three members of Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq were killed in a strike on the country’s capital, Baghdad overnight. One of those killed was a senior commander of the group known as Ali al-Amiri. The U.S. was blamed for the deadly strike.
Kata’ib Hezbollah is believed to be a faction of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), which has been launching attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and neighboring countries since the start of the American-Israeli war on Iran. It is unclear, however, if the recent attacks on the Kurdistan Region were carried out by the umbrella group, or by the Islamic Republic itself, which has been also launching attacks at targets there.
Another faction of the IRI, Saraya Awliya al-Dam, released video footage after the attacks on Kurdistan region showing its fighters launching what appears to be Iranian-made Shahed-101 suicide drones from an underground facility. It said that the drones hit the “headquarters of the American occupation in Erbil”.
It’s worth noting that the attacks came amid reports that Baghdad is in talks with Erbil to export oil through the Kurdistan Region’s pipelines with Turkey.
Iraq was affected by the de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which began with the war on Iran, and a series of U.S. strikes that targeted Kharg Island — the Islamic Republic’s main oil exporting hub — have caused more escalation, with the Iranians threatening American economic assets in the region.
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