At least six Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have been killed and 22 wounded in a rocket attack on their base north of Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, security and Peshmerga sources confirmed on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. The identity of those responsible for the attack has not been immediately established, with sources noting it was not clear who carried out the strike.
The attack adds a fresh dimension to an already extraordinarily complex regional conflict. Iraqi Kurdistan’s Peshmerga forces, the military arm of the Kurdistan Regional Government, operate largely independently of the Iraqi federal government and have historically maintained complex relationships with multiple regional actors including Iran, the United States, and Turkey. The timing of the attack, arriving as US-Iran diplomatic back channels are reportedly active and a meeting between senior American and Iranian officials in Islamabad is being arranged, makes the question of attribution particularly significant.
Iran-backed militia groups operating in Iraq, including factions of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, have previously conducted attacks on Kurdish and American targets in Iraqi Kurdistan. The US military conducted its own strike on a PMF base in Iraq’s Anbar province on Monday, killing at least seven people including senior leaders. Whether Tuesday’s rocket attack on the Peshmerga base is a retaliatory action linked to that American strike, an Iranian-directed escalation designed to complicate the diplomatic back channel, or the work of a different actor entirely remains unknown at the time of writing.
Erbil and Iraqi Kurdistan have been on heightened alert since the Iran-US-Israel conflict escalated in late February 2026. The Kurdistan Regional Government hosts both American military assets and significant Western civilian presence, making it a potential target for Iranian proxy forces seeking to expand the conflict’s geographic footprint beyond the direct Iran-Israel-US triangle. A rocket attack of this scale, killing six Peshmerga fighters and wounding 22 more, is a significant escalation in terms of casualty numbers for a single incident in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The attack underscores what analysts have been warning throughout the current conflict: the war’s blast radius extends well beyond Iran and Israel, drawing in Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi militia groups, Houthi forces in Yemen, and now potentially actors in Iraqi Kurdistan into a regional conflagration whose boundaries are expanding rather than contracting despite the diplomatic signals of the past 24 hours.
This is a developing story. The identity of the attackers, the specific location of the base north of Erbil, and any claim of responsibility have not been confirmed at the time of publication. Business Upturn will update this article as further information becomes available.
This is a developing story. All casualty figures and details are based on reports from security and Peshmerga sources as of March 24, 2026. Business Upturn will update coverage as official statements are issued.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.