Kirkuk: An explosive drone was intercepted and shot down near the Kurdish Peshmerga forces' base in Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk, as reported by the Directorate General of Counter Terrorism for Iraq's Kurdistan region. The incident occurred at 1:35 a.m. on Friday local time (2235 GMT Thursday) and fortunately did not result in any casualties.

According to Namibia Press Agency, the drone incident in Kirkuk followed the downing of another unidentified drone near a Peshmerga military base in the Sulaymaniyah province of northeastern Iraq on Thursday evening. Major General Ahmed Latif, spokesperson for the 70th brigade of the Peshmerga forces, informed the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan media network that a drone was detected in the vicinity of the 70th brigade in Sulaymaniyah on Thursday night. Security personnel successfully neutralized the drone without causing any damage.

No group has claimed responsibility for the drone incidents. Iraq has been experiencing a rise in drone attacks, with a previous incident involving a booby-trapped drone being shot down near Erbil International Airport in the Kurdistan region on July 3.