Iraqi Shi’ite militias stationed in the border town of Abu Kamal in eastern Syria came under attack on Tuesday, according to local news reports. There were no reports on the casualties, but they were attacked by unidentified drones.
There was no clue as to whose drones they were, though locals reported they came from the direction of Syrian Kurdish territory. That likely narrows it down a fair bit, as does the fact that anyone active in Syria is attacking Iraqi forces on the periphery.
The most obvious culprit would be Israel, which has repeatedly attacked Iraqi militias in recent months, including once in Abu Kamal. Israel is on good terms with the Kurds, and they’d definitely allow them access to their airspace.
The US is another possibility, however, as the US is increasingly hostile toward Iraq’s militias, and operates in Syrian airspace with virtual impunity. That Iraq just got done refusing the US permission to base more troops in Western Iraq might also give them a motive to hit Iraqis in the area, though if this proved to be the case, it would be a huge problem for US-Iraqi relations.
“they’d definitely allow them access to their airspace.”
Do the Kurds control any airspace on a scale to be “allowing” or “not allowing” its use via formal permission?
Indeed. Which means it’s the US — which presumably has radars monitoring everything that moves in the
Syria/Iraq airspace — that’s doing the “allowing” … which means Israel.
The deal signed by Putin- Erdogan yesterday is a win- win for everyone involved, except Israel. Go figure. The gap for Israel to attack from this angle is steadily closing in as Syria and Russia is on their way in and the Kurds who don’t even live there, on their way out, with a bang. Attempt to create a 2:nd Israel is a major failure (which we can add to Vickie Nudelman’s failed Khazaria 2.0 attempt in Crimea). Such attacks will only increase the calls to oust the US and hence Israel, entirely from Iraq.