(Previous Incident Code: ISIRQ260304a )

During the night of Wednesday, 4 March 2026, up to two individuals, including a delivery driver and a child, were reported injured by falling drone debris in the 32 Park neighbourhood and Ankawa neighbourhood in Ebril, North Iraq. Drones had been launched by the Saraya Awliya al-Dam militia, who claimed credit in a statement, and were reportedly intercepted.

Al Jazeera (@AJABreaking) reported “two injured in a drone crash into a residential area in the center of Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq.” Multiple sources, including Facebook accounts ‘Rudaw Arabia’ and ‘Masdar’ indicated that a drone had crashed as a result of an interception. 964 media reported that “several powerful explosions shook Erbil on Wednesday evening after air defense systems intercepted multiple drones over the city, sending debris into residential areas and leaving one person wounded.”

Local sources reporting on Facebook specified that one of the injured individuals was a delivery driver from Baghdad, who reportedly incurred a leg injury as a result of the falling debris. According to Zagros correspondent in Erbil, the injury was minor and the condition of the delivery worker was stable.

A video shared by Rudaw Arabia shows the person injured in the strike being carried by two men to a vehicle, amidst the busy street. An image shared by l-Fallujah Channel on Facebook also shows a young man, likely the injured delivery driver, being assisted by others.

Two other local sources, namely Dilshad Jawish and Zagross, specified that the other injured party was a child. The identities of both individuals are currently unavailable.

Reporting on Facebook, local regional source Sulaymaniyah Eye also stated that a house was damaged as a result of the debris. A video of the site of the incident also shared on Facebook by Rudaw Arabia shows a large pile of rubble on the side of a street in the neighbourhood.

According to 964 media, falling debris also struck a residential building in Ankawa neighbourhood of Erbil, causing fires in two apartments. The chapel of McGivney House, affiliated with the Chaldean Catholic Archdiocese of Erbil, also sustained damage. The Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil said “no injuries were reported among the residents of the complex, nor among the security forces,” and that civil defense teams arrived promptly to assess the damage. A video shared by @964.english on Instagram shows the moment of the drone’s crush, resulting fire and damage to the ground floor of the building.

The responsibility for the initial drone strike was declared by Saraya Awliya al-Dam (Brigades of the Guardians of Blood), operating under the Islamic Resistance in Iraq umbrella (classified as an Iranian-backed militia), as reported by 964media and Kurdistan24 which posted a screenshot of the statement. In the statement, the group said it launched “a swarm of drones” targeting “a base of the American occupation at Erbil airport,” describing the operation as carried out “in fulfillment of our religious duty and in retribution for the blood of the martyred leader Ali al-Husseini Khamenei, and in response to the aggression that led to the martyrdom of three young Iraqi resistance fighters.” As multiple sources mention that the drone had been intercepted, the strike status has been graded as “contested.” None of the sources found attributed the interception to a specific military, therefore both the Iraqi military and U.S. military which operate air defense systems in Iraq have been listed as potential belligerents.