US forces shoot down eight explosive drones over Erbil, north Iraq

The Kurdish counterterrorism forces say US coalition forces have shot down eight explosive drones over the city of Erbil in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reports.

No casualties were reported in the incident, it added.

Strikes kill 8 Iranian Kurdish fighters in Iraq

An official from the Kurdistan Workers’ Association of Iran in Sulaymaniyah has announced that at least eight Iranian Kurdish fighters have been killed in an attack on Iraq, according to a report by the Rudaw Media Network.

“Our headquarters in Zarkwezla, Sulaimaniyah Governorate, was targeted by six missiles and caught fire,” the official said and added that the attack resulted in “the martyrdom of eight Peshmerga fighters and injuries several others.”

Idriss Kohlwazi from the Komala party told the AFP news agency that Iran was behind the attack.

Various Iranian Kurdish groups, which share close ties with Iraqi Kurds, have long opposed Tehran from their bases in northern Iraq and along the Iraq-Iran border.

In March, Iran had launched operations targeting Iranian and Iraqi Kurdish groups in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in neighboring Iraq.

Kurdistan region’s presidency condemns Iranian attacks

Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan region presidency has condemned the attacks in the region in a statement posted on X.

“The targeting of the Kurdistan Region and the initiation of violence constitute a grave betrayal and a profound betrayal of the Iraqi leadership,” the statement said.

“These attacks undermine the country’s stability and place obstacles in the way of peace efforts in the region.”

Iraq's new leadership has no part in a war on Iran by Netanyahu initiated on June 13, 2025, with no evidence showing that Iran was accelerating its nuclear program; vowed in December of that year to attack Iran again in 2026, and resumed that war on February 28, 2026.

Iraq's new government, formed by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, is navigating a "non-aligned" regional course. Baghdad is striving to balance its geopolitical ties, avoiding alliance with either the US or Iran, while aggressively pursuing economic integration with Gulf states and neighboring countries.

Iraq’s KRG demands immediate end to Iran escalation

Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has demanded an immediate end to the escalation, according to a statement issued by the office of its administrative leadership.

“We condemn the unjustified attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the Kurdistan region,” said a statement by the office of Masrour Barzani, the KRG prime minister.

On July 8, 2026, Trump ended unilaterally and without plausible reasons the ceasefire with Iran, which is part of the Memorandum of Understanding, to resume his part of Netanyahu's resumption of the preemptive 12-day war in June 2025.

Any escalation sits in the scale of disproportionality in attacks, the size of attacks in numbers, which is by the US much larger than those of Iran.

Eight drones destroyed in Iraq’s Erbil, Iranian opposition forces say

Iranian opposition groups in Erbil say they have intercepted and destroyed eight drones this morning.

Iranian opposition parties in the Alana Valley area, northwest of Erbil, were attacked by the drones.

According to a report by Kurdistan’s Rudaw media network, the counterterrorism service in the region said in a statement that “coalition forces destroyed and downed eight explosive-laden drones in the skies over Erbil early this morning”.

No casualties have been reported so far and it is unclear if Iran was behind the drone attack.

Qatar condemns Iran’s attacks on Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has released a statement in which it “strongly condemns” Iran’s attacks on Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

It said it was a “blatant violation of the sovereignty” of the region, and “a flagrant breach of international law”.

It stressed the need to “spare the region the consequences of these unjustified attacks, to continue the path of dialogue and diplomacy, and to de-escalate tensions in order to contribute to consolidating security and stability at both the regional and international levels”.