President Barzani condemns Khor Mor strike, presses Baghdad to punish perpetrators

ERBIL – Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Thursday condemned the drone strike on the Khor Mor gas complex in Sulaymaniyah and said the federal government is responsible for preventing repeat attacks and bringing the perpetrators to justice.

“I strongly condemn the terrorist attack carried out last night on the Khor Mor field. This attack targets Iraq and the Kurdistan Region’s economic infrastructure and public services and represents a direct threat to the country’s security and stability,” he said in a statement.

He added that it is the duty of Iraq and the relevant security institutions to “take urgent and effective measures” to prevent such crimes, punish the perpetrators, and prevent their recurrence.

A drone strike late Wednesday hit the Emirati-operated Khor Mor gas complex, igniting a major storage tank and cutting gas supplies to power plants, officials said, triggering widespread blackouts across Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. The shutdown caused the loss of 2,600 megawatts of electricity, disrupting about 80 percent of the regional grid, with power cuts reported across much of the Kurdistan Region.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Khor Mor has faced multiple rocket and drone strikes in recent years, none of which have been claimed. In April 2024, a drone strike on the facility killed four Yemeni workers, and other oil and gas sites in the Kurdistan Region were also targeted by drone attacks earlier this year.