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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An explosion occurred near the perimeter of Sulaimani International Airport on Friday afternoon, causing no casualties, security forces announced.
“This evening, April 7, 2023 at 4:18 pm, an explosion happened near the fences of the Sulaimani International Airport, which caused no material damage or casualties,” reads a statement from Sulaimani security (Asayish).
The blast sparked a fire that was extinguished.
“Our forces are currently investigating the incident and will announce more information” at a later time, adds the Asayish statement.
The airport was not damaged and flights continue as normal.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) issued a statement expressing their concern and called the explosion an “attack.”
“This dangerous situation is the result of the occupation of government institutions and their use for illegal activities,” read the statement from KRG spokesperson Jotiar Adil, pointing a finger of blame at the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which controls Sulaimani province.
“The behavior of an authoritarian party regime in Sulaimani led to the closure of Turkish airspace towards Sulaimani International Airport and then this attack,” he stated, calling for a return to “decent governance” in the province.
Tensions are high between long time rivals the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) over upcoming elections, transparency of the Region’s oil revenues, and the assassination of a former PUK colonel in Erbil in October.
Bafel Talabani, head of the PUK, issued a statement condemning the attack and “inappropriate acts” of some political parties. “Destroying the peace of the region and the city of Sulaimani is a red line,” he stated.
Qubad Talabani, deputy prime minister of the KRG and member of the PUK, responded to Jotiar Adil’s statement, saying that he represents just one party and “in no way can he talk for the whole government and we condemn his latest statement.”
Addressing the blast at the airport, Talabani said “targeting a civil airport is not only breaching Iraq’s sovereignty, but is also a dangerous escalation on the lives of the people of Kurdistan.”
Rewaz Faeq, speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament and a member of the PUK, in a statement said there is "no excuse for the unjust attack" on the airport and compared it to similar attacks on Erbil airport in 2021 and 2022 that were blamed on Iran-backed Iraqi militias. She urged the KRG to not distinguish in its treatment of Erbil and Sulaimani. "Shame on the perpetrators of the attack and anyone who justifies the attack," she stated, in apparent reference to the statement from Jotiar Adil.
The governor of Sulaimani, Haval Abubakir, also condemned the attack in a statement. Addressing the KDP-PUK tensions, he said he calls on “the political parties to end their differences and not make Kurdistan the victim of their own conflicts.”
No perpetrator has been publicly identified yet, but Abubakir urged “the countries of the region to not make Sulaimani and Kurdistan a battleground for settling their own agendas.”
There was some speculation that SDF General Commander Mazloum Abdi was the target of the attack, but an SDF spokesperson dismissed the reports as "fake news."
The explosion comes a few days after Turkey imposed a three-month flight ban on Sulaimani’s airport because of what Turkey’s foreign ministry dubbed “infiltration” by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The ban is believed to be related to a helicopter crash in Duhok province on March 15, killing anti-terrorism forces affiliated to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who were traveling to Sulaimani. Ankara accuses the SDF of being the Syrian wing of the PKK.
Ibrahim Kalin, Turkish presidential spokesperson, told the country’s state media on Wednesday that “the PKK has a very serious establishment in Sulaimani” and Ankara will not disregard this.
On Thursday, a flight bound for Germany’s Dusseldorf was cancelled because the ban prevented it from passing through Turkish airspace, according to a statement from Sulaimani airport.
UPDATED at 11:55 p.m.
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