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Late on July 23, a drone attack targeted a base hosting troops of the US-led coalition near the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.
The base, commonly referred to as “al-Harir” after a nearby village, is located around 70 km to the northeast of the city of Erbil.
“On July 23, 2021 at 1:23 am an Unmanned Aerial System impacted a Coalition base in Kurdistan. There were no casualties and no damage as a result of the attack. The United States and Coalition Forces will stay vigilant and maintain the inherent right to self-defense,” Col. Wayne Marotto, a spokesman for the coalition, told the Rudaw Media Network.
A newly-founded group calling itself Liwa al-Tha’arin [the Rebel Brigade] claimed responsibility for the attack. In a brief statement, the pro-Iranian group claimed that the base was targeted with several drones.
Official banner of Liwa al-Tha’arin.
According to the Sabereen News channel on Telegram, the target of the attack was a hangar where drones operated by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were stored.
The Telegram channel claimed that the US-led coalition base was targeted with a 27-kilogram, fixed-wing suicide drone dubbed “Murad-4”.
This was not the first such attack. On June 26, a drone swarm attacked a number of targets near the US Consulate in Erbil. Back then, Washington condemned the attack and responded with a series of airstrikes that targeted Iranian-backed forces on the Iraqi-Syrian border.
