The key facts
- The UAV strike on the Khor Mor field occurred on November 8 in the Chamchamal district of Sulaymaniyah province
- Gas production has been suspended; the regional ministry of electricity reports about 2,800 MW taken out of service
- No casualties according to preliminary data; Iraq's prime minister ordered a joint investigation with Kurdistan
Attack on Khor Mor and halt of production
On Sunday, November 8, drones attacked the Khor Mor gas field — one of the largest in Iraq's Kurdistan region, located in the Chamchamal district of Sulaymaniyah province. The strike was reported by the Shafaq News portal, while Reuters, citing two sources in the Iraqi security agencies, confirmed the suspension of production after the attack. According to an engineer working at the field, the strike hit a gas storage facility; personnel were ordered to take shelter in bunkers due to fears of renewed attacks. The extent of the damage was not specified immediately after the strike, and no reports of casualties had been received according to preliminary data.
Consequences for the power supply
Khor Mor supplies gas to the local energy infrastructure, so the strike immediately affected the electricity supply: outages began in several districts of the autonomous region. The regional ministry of electricity gave a more precise estimate of the losses — according to its data, after the disruption of gas supplies to power plants, about 2,800 megawatts of generating capacitywere taken out of service. Thus, the issue concerns not only damage to the field itself but also a significant reduction in electricity generation in northern Iraq.
The authorities' response
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi ordered a joint investigation into the incident with the authorities of the Kurdistan Region, the country's security service (Security Media Cell) reported. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, and the perpetrators remain unknown.
Context
The attack occurred against the backdrop of a tense situation around Iraq: earlier, the country's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said that the United States was pressing Baghdad to reduce the number of border crossings with Iran to twoin order to limit trade between the two countries; however, Iraq is in no hurry to comply with this demand, fearing a blow to its own economy. None of the sources confirms any connection between this diplomatic dispute and the strike on Khor Mor.
