Blast at north Iraqi airport raises tension in Kurdish area

An explosion struck next to the Suleimaniyah International Airport in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region Friday, local officials said.
The blast came days after Turkey closed its airspace to flights to and from the airport, citing an alleged increase in Kurdish militant activity threatening flight safety.
Turkey has spent years fighting Kurdish militants in its east. Large Kurdish communities also live in neighboring Iraq and Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based opposition war monitor, and some local media reported that the explosion was a Turkish drone attack on Mazloum Abdi, the leader of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led force in Syria.
Fethullah al-Husseini, a representative of the Kurdish self-rule administration in northeast Syria, said Abdi was “carrying on his work and is in northeast Syria.”