Iranian Drone Strikes Komala Base Near Erbil; Group Reports No Casualties as IRGC Claims Heavy Losses
An explosive-laden drone struck a base of the Iranian Kurdish opposition movement Komala in the Alana Valley of the Balisan area, about 90 km north-east of Erbil in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, at around 22:00 local time on Saturday 24 October 2026. Komala blamed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and said the strike caused material damage but no casualties. The IRGC Ground Forces said on Sunday that they carried out the operation and claimed significant losses for the group.
What each side says
In a statement reported by Rudaw, Komala said one of its bases was hit by a Shahed explosive-laden drone and that its Peshmerga fighters in the area were safe. A security source told Shafaq News on Saturday evening that a drone had targeted a Komala camp in the Alana Valley, in Erbil province’s Khalifan district. Reuters, citing security sources, also reported the strike, according to Iran International.
Iran’s Mehr News Agency said on Sunday morning that the IRGC Ground Forces had targeted the group’s headquarters in Balisan in a drone operation it described as a pre-emptive offensive measure. Mehr said an initial assessment showed “significant damage and casualties”, without giving figures. That claim conflicts with Komala’s statement and has not been independently verified.
The drone strike itself is confirmed by the targeted group, the Iranian side and Iraqi Kurdish security sources. What remains disputed is whether anyone was killed or wounded. The outlets also name the targeted organisation differently, and Komala has split into several factions over the years; DefenceMENA has not established which faction runs the Alana Valley base.
A pattern of cross-border strikes
This is not the first such attack this month. On Wednesday 21 October at least two projectiles launched from Iran hit positions of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) in the Balisan Valley without causing casualties, a PAK spokesman told Rudaw. A security source told the outlet that two Iranian Hadid-110 attack drones were used. The previous week, according to Rudaw, two Iranian drones struck a base of another Komala faction in Balisan, damaging buildings and a guard post.
Tehran has repeatedly struck Iranian Kurdish opposition groups in the Kurdistan Region since the US-Israeli war on Iran began on 28 February 2026, accusing them of threatening its security.
The Baghdad–Tehran security agreement
Iraq and Iran signed a security agreement in March 2023 under which Baghdad committed to disarming Iranian Kurdish opposition groups and moving them away from the border. Iran has continued to strike their positions despite the agreement. Last week Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad said the two governments had agreed to expel the groups from the Kurdistan Region or hand them over to Tehran. An Iraqi official who attended the meeting denied that any such agreement had been reached, Rudaw reported, and several of the parties said neither Baghdad nor Erbil had notified them of any decision.
Neither the Iraqi federal government nor the Kurdistan Regional Government had commented publicly on Saturday’s strike when this article was published. For background on Iraq’s separate military and security forces, see DefenceMENA’s overview of Iraq’s armed forces in 2026.
