Thwarting a “drone” attack against coalition forces near Erbil airport

Hoda Jassim (Baghdad, agencies)

The Counter-Terrorism Service in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq announced that it had “shot down” a “bomb-laden” drone that was targeting the international coalition forces to combat the terrorist organization “ISIS” and the American forces stationed near Erbil Airport yesterday evening, which is the second attack within 24 hours. A statement issued by the Counter-Terrorism Service in the autonomous Kurdistan region stated that “a bomb-laden drone launched by illegal militias, targeting the military base of the international coalition” to combat ISIS, “was shot down at Erbil International Airport at 18:50 pm” on Thursday. 15.50 GMT).
Yesterday evening, the region's Counter-Terrorism Service reported a similar attack.
American forces and the international coalition forces to combat ISIS have been subjected to dozens of attacks since mid-October.
Washington has counted more than a hundred attacks on its forces in Syria and Iraq since October 17.
Washington responded more than once to these attacks by bombing sites of armed factions in Iraq and sites in Syria, the most recent of which was a strike in Baghdad on January 4.
The day after that, Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani renewed his country’s “firm” position to end the presence of the international coalition to combat ISIS, which is led by Washington.
He said that the Iraqi government “is in the process of setting the date for the start of the dialogue through the bilateral committee that was formed to determine the arrangements for ending this presence.” Washington deploys 2,500 military personnel in Iraq and about 900 in Syria as part of the fight against ISIS within the international coalition established in 2014.
In addition, an American military official said yesterday that his country's army said that it did not carry out an air strike on a missile launch pad last Monday near the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq, which hosts American and other international forces. The US military official added to Reuters, “The vehicle-mounted rocket launcher, which was reportedly found about 7 kilometers east of Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq, was not destroyed as a result of a US air strike.”
Two Iraqi army officials told Reuters last Tuesday that a US air strike on a missile launch pad late on Monday thwarted an attack on the Ain al-Asad air base.