An explosive drone was shot down near Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq's oil-rich province of Kirkuk early on Friday, the Iraqi Kurdistan's counter-terrorism service said in a statement.
The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Interior Ministry last Friday pointed the finger at Iranian-backed militias in Iraq as the culprits behind the recent drone attacks.
These attacks began on June 24, when the ceasefire was coming into force after 12 days of fighting between Israel and Iran.
Within days, the attacks spread. Rockets were launched at the airport at an air base at Kirkuk airport. It was not clear from local reports if the target was Kirkuk's civilian airport or a military air base northwest of Kirkuk, called K-1.
Kurdish-Iraqi conflicts continue across the country
Dozens of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants will hand over their weapons in a ceremony in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant first step toward ending a decades-long insurgency with Turkey.
The PKK, locked in conflict with the Turkish state and outlawed since 1984, decided in May to disband, disarm and end its armed struggle after a public call to do so from its long-imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.
After a series of failed peace efforts, the new initiative could pave the way for Ankara to end an insurgency that has killed over 40,000 people, burdened the economy and wrought deep social and political divisions in Turkey and the wider region.
Around 40 PKK militants and one commander were expected to hand over their weapons at the ceremony in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah, people familiar with the plan said. The PKK is based in northern Iraq after being pushed well beyond Turkey's frontier in recent years.
The arms are to be destroyed later in another ceremony attended by Turkish and Iraqi intelligence figures, officials of Iraq's Kurdistan regional government, and senior members of Turkey's pro-Kurdish DEM party - which also played a key role in facilitating the PKK's disarmament decision.