Baghdad: In the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, an explosion occurred close to the Suleimaniyah International Airport on Friday, according to local authorities.
The explosion happened a few days after Turkiye banned flights to and from the airport, citing an alleged rise in militant Kurdish activity endangering flight safety.
Turkiye has fought Kurdish militants in its east for years. Large Kurdish populations can also be found in Syria and Iraq, which are nearby.
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The explosion was reportedly caused by a Turkish drone attack on Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main US-backed and Kurdish-led force in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition war monitor.
In northeast Syria, representatives of the SDF and the Kurdish regional government denied that Abdi was in Suleimaniyah at the time or had been attacked.
Abdi is "carrying on his work and is in northeast Syria," according to Fethullah Al-Husseini, a representative of the Kurdish self-rule administration there.
The airport's security directorate reported that at 4:18 p.m. local time, an explosion occurred close to the perimeter fence of the airport, starting a fire but leaving no one hurt. The airport was said to be operating normally and that an investigation into the explosion's cause was ongoing.
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Investigations are still ongoing, according to Lawk Ghafuri, head of foreign media affairs for the Kurdish regional government in Iraq, and he is unable to confirm whether the explosion was the result of a drone attack.
The regional government of the Iraqi Kurds, however, appeared to place the blame on Suleimaniyah's local government, which it charged with inciting a "attack" on the airport and abusing "government institutions" for "illegal activities."
While Suleimaniyah is a stronghold of the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the regional government, which has its seat in Irbil, is primarily under the control of the Kurdish Democratic Party.
The explosion was the result of a drone attack, according to two Kurdish officials in Irbil who spoke to reporters under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the incident. One of them claimed Abdi was the target of the attack.
An official from the Turkish defence ministry claimed to be unaware of the incident. Turkey's foreign ministry declared on Wednesday that flights departing from and landing at the Suleimaniyah airport are not permitted to enter Turkish airspace.
The closure, according to Turkish officials, was a reaction to an alleged uptick in the activities of the PKK—a terrorist organisation that is banned—in the city of Suleimaniyah, including its "infiltration" of the airport.
The choice was made a few weeks after Kurdish militants aboard two helicopters that crashed in northern Iraq were killed. The incident emboldened PKK helicopter possession rumours, angering Turkish authorities.
In a later statement, the SDF claimed that nine fighters, including a commander, perished in the crash that took place during bad weather while en route to Suleimaniyah. According to the SDF, among the nine were elite fighters who were in Iraq as part of a "exchange of expertise" in the conflict with the Daesh organisation.
After the crash, representatives of the Kurdish Democratic Party, which has generally good relations with Turkiye, claimed that the helicopters were originally bought by the opposition Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and that they had been flying without authorization from the government.
