Turkish UAV shot down over northern Iraq

Iraqi security forces inspect the debris of the Turkish Aksungur UAV that crashed in Kirkuk 29 August. (AFP via Getty Images)

The reformed Iraqi Air Defence Command (IADC) almost certainly shot down its first aircraft on 29 August, when a Turkish Aksungur unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crashed in Kirkuk.

Iraq's Joint Operations Command released a statement saying Iraqi air defences detected a UAV at 0900 h and tracked it as it approached Kirkuk city but failed to identify it. It added that the aircraft was observed crashing at 1030 h, after which it was confirmed to have been a Turkish UAV, and a team had been formed to investigate the cause of the crash.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Öncü Keçeli responded to the Iraqi statement by saying, “Co-ordination has been established with Iraqi authorities to shed light on all the details of the incident.”

Iraqi media cited the spokesperson for Kirkuk police as saying the UAV had been shot down by Iraqi air defences. Al-Rabiaa TV cited Brigadier General Abdul Salam Hamoudi Ramadan, the deputy commander for the IADC's northern region, as saying his force hit the UAV near Jimen and it then crashed in Kirkuk city.

At least two videos showed a surface-to-air missile being launched, purportedly at the UAV, from a rural area from different angles. The missile appeared to be launched by a Pantsir-S1 air-defence system, a type that has been in service with the IADC since 2014, although it could not be confirmed this was the engagement that destroyed the UAV.

The aircraft's burning wreckage was filmed falling from the sky and landing in Kirkuk by multiple people. Photographs showed one part of the wreckage had the name of Turkish Aerospace's twin-engine long-endurance Aksungur UAV written on it.