Three armed drones shot down over US base in northern Iraq

Three armed drones were shot down on January 16 over Erbil airport in northern Iraq, where US and other international forces are stationed, Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service said.

A statement from the service did not say if there were any casualties or damage to infrastructure, AlArabiya news reports.

January 16 attack came hours after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked a purported “spy headquarters” of Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence service in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

The counter-terrorism service said in a statement the drones were intercepted and shot down at around 5:05 a.m. local time.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. A group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-aligned Iraqi militias, have claimed responsibility for similar previous attacks.

US and international forces based in Iraq and across the border in Syria have been on high alert amid dozens of attacks, mostly claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, over Washington’s backing of Israel in its war in Gaza against the Iran-backed Hamas movement.