The Arbat airport, located 50km (30 miles) to the east of Sulaimaniya, has been used by the “anti-terrorism” combat apparatus that is part of Sulaymaniyah security forces.
“Whether all the victims are from the anti-terrorism apparatus remains to be known,” Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed said.
The airport was used for agricultural purposes in the past.
Two members of the Kurdish security forces were wounded in the attack and were rushed to a military hospital in Sulaimaniya under tight security, a police source told Reuters.
Abdelwahid added that Turkish drones have been hovering in the area for the past three days.
“The Sulaymaniyah province is home to anti-Turkish and anti-Iran groups, and both these countries have been conducting air raids in and around Sulaymaniyah,” Abdelwahid said, adding that we still do not know who is behind the attack.
The attack comes on a day when Iraq’s federal government gave the administration of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region more funding to allow it to pay salaries.
