New Accusations Made over Erbil Rocket Attack

Kurdish security members in Erbil. (Reuters file photo)
Kurdish security members in Erbil. (Reuters file photo)
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New Accusations Made over Erbil Rocket Attack

Kurdish security members in Erbil. (Reuters file photo)
Kurdish security members in Erbil. (Reuters file photo)

A leading member of the 30th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) accused the United States of being behind last week’s rocket attack in Erbil.

The rockets were fired from a field in the Nineveh plains that is effectively under PMF control making the pro-Iran group the prime suspect in the incident. But a commander of the 30th Brigade, Abou Sidra al-Shabaki said the attack is aimed at “embarrassing” the PMF and forcing them out of the Nineveh plains.

“This is a very thorny issue and I do not rule out the possibility of the Americans being behind it,” he charged.

The Iraqi government has formed an investigation committee to probe the attack. Iraq’s military blamed a “terrorist group” for launching the Wednesday rocket attack on the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region’s capital, Erbil, and said there had been no casualties. Another probe, including international parties, was being carried out, declared the Kurdistan Region.

Another commander in the 30th Brigade, Abou Kawthar al-Shabaki confirmed that the Iraqi committee had arrived in the area, questioning accusations against his unit.

The deployment of the brigade in the region is aimed at protecting it and all of its members hail from this area, he added.

The attack, he continued, was launched from an area that lies between regions controlled by the Kurdish Peshmerga and another by the PMF, meaning there is a security vacuum there.

‘Security vacuum’
Meanwhile, Secretary General of the Peshmerga Jabar Yawar told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Kurdistan investigation committee was probing the incident using satellite images and surveillance cameras in the area.

He explained that a security belt is in place near where the Peshmerga are deployed where PMF forces and Iraqi federal police are present. He acknowledged several points of “security vacuum” in this belt area that can be exploited by various groups to carry out attacks.

Neither the Iraqi nor Kurdish government have made accusations over the attack. They are awaiting the investigations, he stressed, while dismissing the various accusations that have been made by unofficial figures.

Political analyst Saman Nouh remarked that the attack took place shortly after the United States threatened to shut down its embassy in Baghdad, saying it may manage its interests from Erbil.

The diplomatic mission in Baghdad’s Green Zone has come under numerous rocket attacks in recent months.

“These attacks can be interpreted as PMF threats to the Americans and warnings that no area in Iraq is out of reach of the forces,” continued Nouh.

The attack was also directed to Kurdish leaderships, warning them against trusting and siding with the Americans, he added.

It is also an indirect message from Iran’s allies that the Kurdish leaders must keep in mind that Tehran has the capacity to harm them and that they must not break away from the positions of the majority of Shiite partners.

Moreover, Nouh noted that the commander of the 30th Brigade, which controls the area from where the rockets were fired, was replaced just a day before the attack. The rockets used were advanced compared to the ones owned by the PMF.

A member of the PMF in the Nineveh plains, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the former commander of the 30th Brigade, Waad al-Qiddo was behind the Erbil attack.

He said he wanted the operation to spark confusion in the region and embarrass his replacement.

Qiddo, he went on to say, is seeking to regain his post through the backing of a faction in Baghdad.

He was removed from his post over human rights violations and corruption, as well as after outcry from locals who have suffered at his hands, continued the source.



Israeli Fire Kills 30 in Gaza, Medics Say, as Attention Shifts to Iran 

Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
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Israeli Fire Kills 30 in Gaza, Medics Say, as Attention Shifts to Iran 

Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)

Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 30 people across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, local health authorities said, as some Palestinians there said their plight was being forgotten as attention shifted to the air war between Israel and Iran.

The deaths included the latest in near daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on Gaza that it had imposed for almost three months.

Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp and Zeitoun neighborhood in central and northern Gaza killed at least 14 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Eleven others were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of displaced Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said.

The Israel army said it was looking into the reported deaths of people waiting for food. Regarding the other strikes, it said it was "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities" and "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm."

On Tuesday, Gaza's health ministry said 397 Palestinians among those trying to get food aid had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May.

Some in Gaza expressed concern that the latest escalations in the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023 would be overlooked as the focus moved to Israel's five-day-old conflict with Iran.

"People are being slaughtered in Gaza, day and night, but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days," said Adel, a resident of Gaza City.

"Whoever doesn't die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger. People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won," he told Reuters via a chat app.

'FORGOTTEN'

Israel has been channeling much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through a new US- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.

It has said it will continue to allow aid into Gaza, home to more than 2 million people, while ensuring aid doesn't get into the hands of Hamas. Hamas denies seizing aid, saying Israel uses hunger as a weapon against the population in Gaza.

The Gaza war was triggered when Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli allies.

US ally Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced almost all the territory's residents, and caused a severe hunger crisis.

The assault has led to accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.

Palestinians in Gaza have been closely following Israel's air war with Iran, long a major supporter of Hamas.

"We are maybe happy to see Israel suffer from Iranian rockets, but at the end of the day, one more day in this war costs the lives of tens of innocent people," said 47-year-old Shaban Abed, a father of five from northern Gaza.

"We just hope that a comprehensive solution could be reached to end the war in Gaza, too. We are being forgotten," he said.