Two explosive-laden drones slammed into the Pirmam district outside Erbil in the early hours of Monday, targeting the private office of Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and, separately, the residence of the region's intelligence chief. No one was killed or seriously hurt, but the strike marks one of the most direct hits yet on a sitting Iraqi government leader since Iran's war with the United States and Israel widened earlier this year.

The Kurdistan Counter-Terrorism Service identified the weapons as two Iranian-made Hadid-110 explosive drones, launched from across the Iranian border and striking just after midnight local time. One hit near Barzani's office; the other landed close to the home of the director of the Parastin intelligence agency. Security officials said both men were unharmed.

"A dangerous escalation and a direct threat to the security and stability of the Kurdistan Region," Barzani said in response to the strike, according to Al Jazeera's reporting.

Tehran denies, Baghdad investigates

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied Tehran ordered the strike, calling it a "highly suspicious" incident and suggesting it could be a "false-flag" operation meant to sabotage relations between Iran and Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered an immediate investigation into who launched the drones and from where, while Kurdish and Iraqi security officials have pointed to the Iranian side of the border as the launch site.

SUCH AGGRESSION AGAINST OUR TRUSTED KURDISH ALLIES IS UNACCEPTABLE.

That warning came from U.S. Special Envoy Tom Barrack, whose comments were reported by The National as Washington weighed in on an attack landing just weeks before a planned drawdown of U.S. forces from Iraq.

Iran has long accused the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of sheltering Iranian Kurdish opposition fighters and allowing Israeli intelligence operations on its soil — allegations Erbil denies. The region has already absorbed missile and drone fire tied to the broader Iran conflict this year, but a strike aimed at the seat of the sitting prime minister's office is a marked jump in intensity.

The attack lands at a precarious moment for Iraq's Kurdish leadership. Kurdish officials have voiced growing anxiety over reduced American military protection as U.S. forces prepare for a broader withdrawal from Iraq by the end of September, even as Iraq finds itself squeezed from multiple directions — targeted at various points this year by Iran, pro-Tehran militias, and fallout from Israeli and American strikes elsewhere in the country.

No group has claimed responsibility. Iraqi and Kurdish investigators say they are working to trace the drones' exact launch point, and regional officials are bracing for further retaliatory strikes if the standoff between Iran and its neighbors continues to escalate in the coming days.