Expert: Iraq vulnerable to drone, cruise missile threats
Shafaq News/ Iraq faces growing security risks from erratic drones and cruise missiles that are difficult to intercept and may endanger civilian areas, an aviation expert warned on Friday.
The warning follows a string of drone crashes reported across Iraq, including in Nineveh, Baghdad, Diyala, Al-Sulaymaniyah, and Kirkuk, since the beginning of the Iran-Israel conflict.
'These are not conventional projectiles. Their unpredictable flight paths make them far more difficult to neutralize without causing additional harm,' Aviation Specialist Fares al-Jourani told Shafaq News, cautioning that attempts to intercept such devices could lead to crashes in populated zones—especially if the payloads contain high explosives.
'Even misdirected drones or cruise missiles carry destructive potential because of their unstable trajectories and lethal payloads,' he noted, adding that their use poses a significant challenge to civilian safety and national defense infrastructure.
Al-Jourani underscored Iraq's limited air defense coverage and lack of early warning systems as critical vulnerabilities, and called for urgent upgrades to radar networks and integration of layered defense mechanisms to counter these threats.
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