Iraqi security sources reported July 30 that unidentified drones had been seen near Hit district in Anbar province in the west of the country. The sources said that “the fixed wing drones are the property of the Islamic State [IS].”

It is likely that IS is using these drones. In the Mosul battles, IS often used drones to strike Iraqi security forces by loading the drones with missiles that it would then drop on Iraqi military complexes.

However, IS apparently is not the only nongovernmental group using drones in Iraq. On July 23, a drone carrying a 2-kilogram (4.4-pound) missile was found in Jadriyah in central Baghdad. The party owning it was not revealed, which raises concerns in Baghdad, which is already struggling with security and political crises.

The Iraqi authorities did not disclose any information about the drone that was found in a presidential area only a few hundred meters from the governmental Green Zone. It landed at a complex adjacent to the house of President Barham Salih. Hussein Allawi, national security professor at Al-Nahrain University in Baghdad, said he considered the incident “a huge breach of Iraqi national security.”