Last Tuesday (March 10, 2026) night, the skies above Erbil — the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region — flashed with the streaks of air defence interceptors. According to Erbil’s governor, at least 17 drones targeted the city in a single night, triggering sirens and sending residents scrambling indoors — a stark reminder that one of the West Asia’s most stable corners is now being drawn into a widening regional confrontation.
Debris crashed into a civilian home near the United States consulate and landed close to a major public venue. Northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, which hosts several Iranian Kurdish opposition groups, has seen a slew of such attacks since the war in what officials describe as a rapidly escalating campaign in the region.
In the latest attack, multiple explosions on Monday (March 16, 2026) night rocked Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, with at least four persons killed in an air strike on a building used by an Iran-backed group, and drone strikes targeting the United States Embassy. The deadly attack in Baghdad’s Jadriyah district followed the sound of an explosion from near the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone early on Tuesday (March 17, 2026).
