Iran has intensified drone and missile attacks on Iranian-Kurdish opposition bases in Iraq's Kurdistan region, with fresh strikes on Erbil and Sulaymaniyah reported on July 22 as the US-Iran war spills further across the border.

Al Jazeera and Al Mayadeen, cited by Iranian outlet Borna, reported multiple explosions over Erbil, which the networks linked to strikes on bases belonging to Iranian-Kurdish separatist groups in the region. Coverage attributed a wider fire at opposition positions on Mount Azmar, in Sulaymaniyah province, to earlier drone attacks.

The strikes fit a pattern that has escalated since early July. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps struck the Komala party near Erbil with drones and missiles on July 20, according to FDD's Long War Journal, part of a campaign that has driven several international energy firms to suspend operations in the region. Human rights monitor Hengaw has documented at least 50 such attacks since an April ceasefire, per Life News Agency.

The heaviest single day came on July 18, when Komala said nine of its members were killed in a strike on a camp near Sulaymaniyah, according to AFP. Kurdish security forces reported seven missiles fired across Sulaymaniyah province, while US-led coalition air defences shot down eight explosive-laden drones over Erbil, home to a US consulate, between 04:19 and 05:25 local time. A missile also hit a Peshmerga arms depot at Tasluja, sparking a large fire without casualties.

US forces have been drawn in. US Central Command said on July 19 that a US service member had been killed in northern Iraq on July 18 during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone.

Iraqi Shafaq News reported that coalition air defences had repeatedly intercepted drone swarms over Erbil, while noting that the origin of some strikes remains formally unacknowledged.

Separately, a now confirmed report circulating on Iranian social media channels on July 22 claimed a Saudi oil tanker out of Yanbu had been struck by a missile and set ablaze near the approaches to Yemen.

A later confirmed report by UKMTO said that a tanker had been struck by an unknown projectile, which had caused a fire on board that the "crew are fighting," 70 nautical miles southwest of Al Shuqaiq.