ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A 24-year-old Peshmerga fighter succumbed on Tuesday to severe injuries he sustained in a missile strike late last month. His death came on the same day a married couple were killed in a drone attack in northwest Erbil, which Kurdish officials said was launched from Iran.
Weysi Akhir Serderi Sherwani died in hospital from injuries he sustained on March 24, an informed official confirmed to Rudaw, noting that he had joined the Peshmerga forces between 2022 and 2023 and left behind a wife and two young sons.
The slain Peshmerga was critically wounded when Iranian tactical ballistic missiles struck a Peshmerga Division 7 base in Erbil’s northeastern Soran administration. The early morning strikes, then carried out in two separate waves, killed six other Peshmerga fighters and wounded 29. Tehran later said the bombardment was a mistake and pledged to conduct an investigation.
Sherwani’s death coincided with the tragic killing of a married couple, 39-year-old Moussa Anwar and 35-year-old Mazhda Asaad, who were killed in their sleep at their home in the village of Zargezawi, northwest of Erbil, leaving behind their two daughters, three-year-old Malin and five-year-old Dilin.
The Kurdistan Region’s Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD) detailed that the attack was carried out by “an explosive-laden drone” that “was launched from Iran.”
The CTD strongly condemned the attack as “a violation of international law” and “a war crime,” emphasizing that it condemns such assaults in “the strongest possible terms.”
While no group has claimed Tuesday’s deadly drone attack, shadowy Iraqi armed groups aligned with the Tehran-led ‘Axis of Resistance’ have previously taken responsibility for many recent strikes on the Kurdistan Region, framing them as part of the response for the joint US-Israeli military campaign launched against Iran in late February.
Since then, Rudaw monitoring indicates the Kurdistan Region has endured 678 drone and missile attacks: 540 targeted Erbil province, 111 struck Sulaimani, 25 hit Duhok, and two impacted Halabja.
Before Tuesday’s deaths, the attacks had killed 14 people and injured 93 others, including Peshmerga fighters, Kurdish security forces (Asayish) personnel, fighters from Iranian Kurdish opposition groups, a French soldier, and multiple civilians. With the latest fatalities, the death toll is expected to rise further.
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