US forces down Iranian drone in Iraq

US forces on September 28 brought down an Iranian drone that officials said appeared poised to attack American troops in Iraq.

The downing came as the Iranian military started a drone bombing campaign targeting the bases of an Iranian-Kurdish opposition group in northern Iraq, attacks that have killed at least nine people and wounded 32 others, according to the Kurdish Regional Government’s Health Ministry, per The Hill.

The bombings follow Iraqi and Iranian Kurds protesting in Iraq’s northern city of Erbil over the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in the custody of Iran’s so-called morality police.

“US Central Command condemns the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ unprovoked attack in Iraq’s Erbil Governorate this morning. Such indiscriminate attacks threaten innocent civilians and risk the hard-fought stability of the region,” command spokesman Joe Buccino said in a statement.

In the midst of the bombing campaign, US forces at 2:10 pm local time brought down an Iranian Mojer-6 unmanned aerial vehicle “headed in the direction of Erbil as it appeared as a threat to CENTCOM forces in the area,” according to Buccino.