Iran and its allied Iraqi armed factions, according to Kurdish sources, have resumed shelling several areas in the Kurdistan Region under the pretext of striking American targets and assets, as well as Kurdish opposition groups, in parallel with renewed military escalation with the United States.

The new attacks raised the level of security concerns in the region, prompting the official authorities there to suspend flights at Erbil and Sulaymaniyah airports.

The attacks coincide with a visit by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to the United States, amid discontent from Iranian and Iraqi allied figures over its outcomes.

Attack in Sulaymaniyah

On Friday night into Saturday, an attack using a rocket and a drone targeted the city of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, sparking a fire at one site.

Medical sources said the attack resulted in injuries to a number of civilians, while several residents saw ambulances rushing to the target site at night.

The attack targeted a residential neighborhood in the town of Tasluja, according to local sources, but platforms affiliated with Iranian-allied Iraqi factions broadcast videos of the attack, claiming it targeted an ammunition depot.

It is difficult to verify these videos through independent sources, but journalists from the city suggested that the circulated images were of strikes targeting opposition party headquarters in 'Qara Dagh' and 'Soran.'

Spokesman for the Sulaymaniyah Civil Defense Directorate, Aram Ali, offered a different account on Saturday, saying that the black smoke cloud in Tasluja was caused by a fire in a fuel tanker.

Explosion in the sky resulting from intercepting a drone in Erbil in a screenshot from a video posted on social media on July 15, 2026

'Weapons depot'

Meanwhile, a Kurdish security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that 'the attack targeted a weapons depot of the Kurdistan Region's Peshmerga forces in Tasluja, killing at least 6 Peshmerga members,' denying Iran and its allies' claims of US forces being present at the forces' headquarters.

The source also stated that 'one of the Iranian opposition sites in the Soran area was shelled on Saturday, without knowing the extent of the losses.'

Earlier on Friday, a official from an Iranian Kurdish opposition group said that at least nine people were killed and others injured in a rocket attack suspected to have been carried out by Iran against the group in Sulaymaniyah province in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Iran has been attacking camps of Iranian Kurdish groups opposed to the Tehran government in the cities of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah for years, but the momentum of attacks has increased in recent months, though no independent tally has emerged confirming a final figure for the number of attacks.

President Nizar Amidi condemned the targeting of the region's cities on Saturday, saying in a post on 'X' that Iraq rejects 'the attacks that targeted the cities of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, under any pretext, which constitute an unacceptable violation of Iraq's sovereignty and threaten the security and stability of its citizens.'

Amidi stressed rejection of Iraq being 'an arena for conflicts or a field for settling regional scores, and renews its commitment to relations based on mutual respect and good neighborliness, preserving state sovereignty and sparing the peoples of the region further escalation and instability.'

The Kurdistan Region Presidency also condemned the attacks, considering them to 'threaten the stability of the country and hinder peace efforts in the region.' A Gulf state also condemned the attacks on the Kurdistan Region.

Meanwhile, Kurdish sources reported on Saturday that all scheduled flights through Erbil International Airport and Sulaymaniyah International Airport were canceled, according to the airports' flight schedules.

This came in the wake of the attacks that targeted the cities of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah overnight, noting that air navigation was affected by the security measures that followed those attacks.

The Sulaymaniyah airport administration suspended two flights scheduled for Saturday morning; one to Istanbul and the other to Amman, before later announcing that scheduled flights for the same day had resumed, and air traffic at the airport continued as normal.

Erbil Citadel in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (circulated)

904 attacks

According to statistics provided by the Kurdish Rudaw Network, the Kurdistan Region has been bombed with 904 drones and rockets since the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran on February 28 last year until last Friday.

The statistics indicate that the attacks resulted in 29 deaths and 138 injuries, in addition to material losses to private and official buildings and property.

The attacks were distributed as 617 attacks on Erbil province, the region's capital, which includes the 'Harir' base where US forces are stationed, 254 attacks on Sulaymaniyah province, and 31 attacks on Dohuk province.

According to the statistics, the 29 people killed in the attacks include 7 Peshmerga forces in the first region command in Khalifan sub-district of Erbil province, an employee of the Asayish (security) agency at Erbil International Airport, a husband and wife who were martyred in their home, 17 Peshmerga fighters from three parties from Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhalat), the son of an Iranian Kurdistan Peshmerga fighter, in addition to a French soldier in Erbil.

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