PKK Shot Down Turkish Aksungur Combat Drone Over Iraq’s Kurdistan (Video)

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The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) announced on May 27 that it had shot down an Aksungur combat drone of the Turkish military over Qandil Mountains in the northern Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan.

The group didn’t provide any details, but it released video footage showing the drone falling from the sky after being hit by a large blast.

The Turkish Aerospace Industries’ Aksungur, one of the largest combat drones in the Turkish arsenal, was first introduced into service in 2021. The drone has a range of 6,500 kilometers and an endurance of up to 49 hours. It can be armed with a wide range of weapons, including precision-guided glide bombs with a stand-off range.

The PKK is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey. The Kurdish guerilla has been waging an insurgency against the country for around four decades.

Last March, the PKK announced that it had obtained an anti-aircraft missile system that can engage and defeat Turkish drones flying at high altitudes.

The group didn’t unveil the system or reveal how it was able to obtain it. However, it said that it was able to down 15 drones over Kurdistan between February 13 of last year and March 1 and released footage showing seven successful interceptions.

The Turkish Ministry of National Defense has not yet confirmed, or denied losing any combat drone to PKK fire over Kurdistan. Yet, reports in Turkish media accused Iran of providing the group with the weapons needed to engage combat drones.

Iran does possess several air defense systems that could defeat Turkish combat drones, including a missile-drone hybrid codenamed by the U.S. military and intelligence as the “358” missile. It is said to have a range of 150 kilometers.

The missile was spotted in Iraq before, but only with Shia armed factions linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

It is not clear why Iran would support the PKK, especially that it is at odds with its branch in Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is backed by the United States.

Another possibility is that the PKK had obtained advanced anti-aircraft missiles from the blackmarket in Ukraine. Leaked U.S. intelligence documents from last year revealed that the Ukrainian intelligence had offered the SDF air defense systems in exchange for cooperation against Russian forces in Syria.

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