Drone Strikes Hit Iraqi Airport and US Oil Facilities

Drone strikes hit an airport and oil facilities in southern Iraq. In the north, the attacks targeted militant groups. AFP reported on Friday, 6 March 2026, that a Basra provincial official said a drone fell near the airport. ‘A drone fell onto the cargo terminal at Basra Airport,’ the security official told AFP. The official added that two other drones struck a US company at the Burjesia oil complex. A fourth drone hit the Rumaila oil field, where BP operates. The origin of the drone attacks was not known.

Iraq, long a battleground in the proxy war between the US and Iran, says it does not want to be drawn into the wider Middle East conflict but cannot avoid its effects. The country has been drawn into the conflict since the early days, with attacks attributed to the United States and Israel targeting Iran-backed groups in Iraq. These groups have sworn not to remain neutral and have claimed attacks on US bases in the country. The Kurdistan region in the north, which hosts US troops, has been a major target. Explosions were heard today near the airport in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, where drones have repeatedly been intercepted.

The Kurdistan Regional Government said that oil production at the oil fields operated by the US-listed HKN Energy halted after an attack the previous day in Dohuk province. It said the attacks were launched from areas of federal Iraq, and urged Baghdad to prevent similar strikes against civilians, economic infrastructure, and the oil and gas sector in the north.

A security source told AFP that the attack involved two drones. Iraq’s Kurdistan also hosts camps and supply bases used by several Iranian Kurdish rebel groups, which have repeatedly been attacked by Iran since the early days of the conflict. Tehran warned on Friday that it would target all facilities in the region if Iranian Kurdish militants were allowed to enter Iran. So far, no forces have entered Iran, according to several sources from the opposition cited by AFP on Thursday. Today, a new attack hit Iranian Kurdish militants, said a Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran exile official. ‘Our bases were attacked by the enemy, Iran,’ the PDKI official told AFP. The Iranian Kurds have hopes that a war could weaken the Islamic Republic of Iran and perhaps even pave the way for an alliance with the United States.