The blast got here days after Turkey closed its airspace to flights to and from the airport, citing an alleged improve in Kurdish militant exercise threatening flight security.

Turkey has spent years combating Kurdish militants in its east. Large Kurdish communities additionally stay in neighboring Iraq and Syria the place they’ve a level of self-rule.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition warfare monitor, and a few native media reported that the explosion was a Turkish drone assault on Mazloum Abdi, the chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the principle US-backed and Kurdish-led drive in Syria.

Officials with the SDF and the Kurdish regional authorities in northeast Syria denied that Abdi was in Suleimaniyah on the time or had been the goal of an assault. Fethullah al-Husseini, a consultant of the Kurdish self-rule administration in northeast Syria, stated Abdi was “carrying on his work and is in northeast Syria.”

The airport’s safety directorate stated in a press release that an explosion happened close to the fence surrounding the airport at 4:18 p.m. native time, inflicting a hearth however no accidents. It stated the reason for the blast was underneath investigation and the airport was working usually.

Lawk Ghafuri, head of overseas media affairs for the Kurdish regional authorities in Iraq, stated investigations had been nonetheless underway and that he was unable to substantiate whether or not the explosion had been a drone assault.

However, a press release from the Iraqi Kurdish regional authorities appeared responsible native authorities in Suleimaniyah, which it accused of frightening an “attack” on the airport and utilizing “government institutions” for “illegal activities.”

The regional authorities, with its seat in Irbil, is primarily managed by the Kurdish Democratic Party, whereas Suleimaniyah is a stronghold of the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Qubad Talabani, deputy prime minister of the regional authorities and a member of the PUK, rejected the regional authorities assertion that appeared to forged blame on his social gathering. He stated the assertion “represents only one party … and cannot speak for the entire government.”

Two Kurdish officers in Irbil, who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to debate the incident with reporters, stated that the explosion was brought on by a drone assault. One of them stated the assault had focused Abdi.

A consultant of the Turkish defence ministry stated he had no details about the incident. Turkey’s overseas ministry introduced Wednesday that Turkish airspace was closed to flights taking off from and touchdown on the Suleimaniyah airport. Turkish officers stated the closure was a response to an alleged improve within the actions of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, within the metropolis of Suleimaniyah, together with its “infiltration” of the airport.

The determination got here weeks after two helicopters crashed in northern Iraq, killing Kurdish militants who had been on board. The incident fueled claims that the PKK was in possession of helicopters, infuriating Turkish authorities.

The SDF later stated it misplaced 9 fighters, together with a commander, within the crash, which occurred throughout dangerous climate on a flight to Suleimaniyah. The 9 included elite fighters who had been in Iraq as a part of an “exchange of expertise” within the combat in opposition to the Islamic State group, the SDF stated.

Officials from the Kurdish Democratic Party, which has maintained largely good relations with Turkey, alleged after the crash that the helicopters had been initially bought by the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and that that they had been flying with out permission from the regional authorities.

The Kurdish regional authorities was pressured final month to cease exporting almost half one million barrels of oil by way of a pipeline to Turkey. That adopted a call by the International Chamber of Commerce siding with the central Iraqi authorities in Baghdad in a long-standing dispute over the unbiased export of oil by the Kurdish area.

Last week Baghdad and Irbil reached a deal to renew the oil exports.