Second drone in a week comes down in Basra’s Faw district

BASRA — A drone crashed into a farm in the Hawz al-Ashar area of Faw district in Basra governorate on Monday, the second drone to come down in the district within a week, a security source told 964media.

Authorities received a report that a drone had fallen inside a farm, and security forces cordoned off the site while awaiting an engineering team to dismantle it, the source said. No injuries were reported, and authorities did not identify the drone’s origin.

The incident comes amid escalating U.S.-Iran tensions that have brought increased drone and missile activity across Iraq and the Gulf. On July 15, another unidentified drone crashed inside the container yard at the Grand Faw Port without casualties, and authorities again did not identify its origin.

Since the conflict began earlier this year, Iran and Iran-aligned armed groups have launched repeated drone and missile attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, U.S. military facilities, the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, oil fields, airports, Peshmerga positions and other sites in the Kurdistan Region. Community Peacemaker Teams – Iraqi Kurdistan documented more than 750 attacks in the region between late February and late May, attributing them to Iran and Iran-backed Iraqi groups. Popular Mobilization Forces positions have also faced repeated airstrikes across Iraq, killing about 100 members, which the group attributed to the United States and Israel.

A new round of strikes on the Kurdistan Region was reported in recent days. On Friday, seven missiles hit three locations in Sulaymaniyah governorate, killing nine members of the Iranian Kurdish opposition group Komala. Later that day a suspected suicide drone struck a Peshmerga ammunition depot near Tasluja, setting off a large fire and secondary explosions. On Saturday, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan President Bafel Talabani said Sulaymaniyah had been hit by ballistic missiles launched from Iran and condemned the attacks as violations of international law. Eight fighters from the Kurdistan National Army, the armed wing of the Iranian Kurdish opposition Kurdistan Freedom Party, were wounded in a drone strike northeast of Erbil early Sunday, the group said.