Smoke rises over a mountain area near Derbandikhan after a drone strike targeted telecommunications towers along the border region with Iran on March 9, 2026.
Drones strike telecom towers along Iran border in Darbandikhan and Garmian
SULAYMANIYAH — Nine drones struck telecommunications towers in mountainous border areas of Darbandikhan and Garmian on Monday, damaging infrastructure but causing no casualties, a security source told 964media.
Seven drones targeted Mount Zmnako near the town of Meydan in the Garmian administration, while two others struck Mount Gulan and Mortka in Derbandikhan. The attacks began in the morning and continued throughout the day.
“All the attacks targeted telecommunications towers,” the source said, attributing them to Iran and affiliated armed groups.
The targeted peaks lie along the mountainous border with Iran. The towers sit in areas where signals from both sides of the border overlap, and residents on either side occasionally use them to connect to neighboring networks — particularly in remote areas where local telecommunications coverage is limited.
Similar strikes have recently hit communication towers in Halabja, and drone and missile attacks have been reported across the Kurdistan Region since the start of the regional war on Feb. 28, killing at least four people and injuring 19 others according to a monitoring report released Sunday. One of the dead was a security employee at Erbil International Airport killed in an overnight strike on Saturday.