Drone Attack Sparks Fire, Halts Production at Iraq's Khor Mor Gasfield, Crippling Regional Power

A drone attack on the Khor Mor gasfield, located in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, has resulted in a fire at the facility and a significant power outage across the region, according to Iraqi and Kurdish officials. The incident, which occurred on Sunday night, left over 70 percent of the Kurdish region without electricity. The perpetrators of the attack and any potential links to the ongoing conflict involving the United States and Israel against Iran remain unclear. Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency Sanad has confirmed the authenticity of footage depicting smoke and flames emanating from the vicinity of the gasfield in the Sulaimaniyah governorate.

Omid Ahmed, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Electricity, stated that the attack has suspended the supply of gas to power plants in the cities of Erbil, Sulaimaniyah, Bazian, Chamchamal, and Duhok, as reported by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA). He further indicated that the strike removed between 2,500 and 2,800 megawatts of electricity generation capacity from the national grid. Ahmed assured that the ministry would prioritize supplying power to critical infrastructure, such as hospitals and water treatment plants, by utilizing hydroelectric power stations and other plants that operate on alternative fuels.

Reporting from Baghdad, Al Jazeera’s Peter Smith cited security sources who confirmed that an explosive-laden drone targeted the Khor Mor gas storage facility. This strike has reduced the energy grid’s capacity by an estimated 70 to 80 percent. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, based on preliminary assessments reported by INA, confirmed that there were no casualties resulting from the attack. Prime Minister al-Zaidi has also ordered the formation of a joint investigative committee, comprising relevant authorities from the Kurdish region, to thoroughly examine the circumstances surrounding the drone strike. This attack occurs amidst a backdrop of heightened regional tensions, and notably, the same facility was targeted by a drone strike last year, with no group claiming responsibility for that incident.