Drone Attack on Iraq’s Khor Mor Gas Field Leaves Most of Kurdistan Without Power

A drone attack has shut down Iraq’s Khor Mor gas field and left more than 70 percent of the Kurdistan Region without electricity. The strike, which hit late on Sunday night, 8 November 2026, started a fire at the facility and cut the gas supply to power stations across the semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq.

The attack knocked between 2,500 and 2,800 megawatts of electricity generation off the grid, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Electricity. That is roughly 70 to 80 percent of the region’s power capacity. Hospitals and water treatment plants are being kept running on emergency supplies while engineers work out how long the shutdown will last.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and officials say it is not yet clear who carried it out. Iraq’s prime minister said there were no casualties, based on an initial assessment, and has ordered a joint investigation with the Kurdish authorities.

Here is what happened, why this one gas field matters so much, and what could happen next.

What happened at Khor Mor

The attack took place on Sunday night at the Khor Mor gas field in the Chamchamal district of Sulaimaniyah governorate, in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. According to two security sources quoted by Reuters, a single drone strike hit the field, and smoke was seen rising from the site soon afterwards.

An engineer working at the field told Reuters that a gas storage facility was hit during the attack, and that all crew were ordered into shelters in case of further strikes. Al Jazeera, citing security sources, reported that an explosive-laden drone struck the gas storage facility at the site.

The strike set fire to a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage tank, according to sources quoted by Reuters, and the fire was still raging hours later. Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, Sanad, verified footage showing smoke and flames rising from the area around the gas field.

Production was suspended immediately. The field’s operator shut down operations for safety reasons, and gas deliveries to the region’s power stations stopped.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said there were no casualties as a result of the attack, based on an initial assessment. He also directed that a joint investigative committee be formed with the relevant authorities in the Kurdistan Region to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.

A region left in the dark

The effect on everyday life was immediate and widespread. More than 70 percent of the Kurdistan Region was left without power after the attack, officials said.

Omid Ahmed, a spokesperson for the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Electricity, said the attack suspended gas supply to power plants in the cities of Erbil, Sulaimaniyah, Bazian, Chamchamal and Duhok. The strike knocked between 2,500 and 2,800 megawatts of electricity generation off the grid, he said.

That is an enormous share of the region’s electricity. Security sources cited by Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Baghdad said the attack had reduced the energy grid’s capacity by 70 to 80 percent. In simple terms, for every ten units of electricity the region normally produces, seven or eight were suddenly gone.

The electricity ministry said the full effect would be felt from midnight, and that normal supply depended on gas production restarting. In the meantime, the ministry said it would provide electricity to critical facilities, such as hospitals and water treatment plants, by operating hydroelectric power stations and other plants that run on alternative fuel.

For millions of people in cities such as Erbil and Sulaimaniyah, the blackout means no lights, no heating, no refrigeration and no way to charge a phone. In November, temperatures in the Kurdish highlands fall sharply at night, so losing power also means losing heat for many homes.

Gas deliveries to power stations elsewhere in Iraq were also disrupted, according to local reports, although the Kurdistan Region bore the worst of the outage.

Why Khor Mor matters so much

Khor Mor is one of the largest natural gas fields in the Kurdistan Region, and it is the single most important source of fuel for the region’s power stations. Most of the electricity used in Kurdistan is generated by burning gas from this one field.

That is why a single strike could darken most of a region of several million people. When a power system depends on one facility, any disruption to that facility becomes a region-wide crisis.

The field produces natural gas, which is used mainly to generate electricity, as well as condensate and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the bottled gas used for cooking and heating. Its processing capacity was expanded to 750 million cubic feet of gas per day in October 2025, making it even more central to the region’s energy supply.

The attack also matters beyond Iraq’s borders. Khor Mor is the biggest gas facility in Iraq, and the most significant part of the energy infrastructure in the Kurdish region. Repeated attacks on it raise questions about the security of energy supplies in a region that already lives with conflict on several fronts.

Who runs the field

Khor Mor is operated by Pearl Petroleum, a consortium of five companies. The United Arab Emirates-based Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum each hold a 35 percent stake. Austria’s OMV, Hungary’s MOL Group and Germany’s RWE each hold 10 percent.

Dana Gas is the main operator of the field. The company had already shown how seriously it takes the security risk: in July 2026, it shut down the main production facilities at the field because of credible security threats and regional tensions, before restarting production later the same month.

The field’s history shows how exposed it is. It sits in disputed territory, and the companies operating it have repeatedly had to weigh the commercial value of the gas against the danger to their workers.

A target attacked before

Sunday night’s strike was not the first attack on Khor Mor. The field has been hit several times in recent years, and each time the result has been the same: fire, a production shutdown and power cuts across the region.

A drone strike on 26 November 2025 set a storage tank on fire and halted supplies to power stations. An attack in April 2024 was worse still: it killed four foreign workers at the field.

Sunday’s attack came after a lull of nearly four months without a strike on the facility, according to local reports. It also hit a part of the field that had not been targeted before: the “Old Field” section, which produces liquefied petroleum gas.

The pattern is what worries officials most. Each attack is followed by repairs, a restart, and then another attack. The field’s operators and the Kurdish government have not yet found a way to protect it, and no group has claimed responsibility for any of the recent strikes — including this one.

That silence matters. Without a claim of responsibility, it is hard to know whether the attack was carried out by a local armed group, a militia acting for a foreign backer, or someone else entirely. A security source told one local outlet that the attack was launched from the disputed town of Tuz Khurmatu, but that claim has not been independently confirmed.

The attack also comes at a time of heightened regional tensions, with conflict and military build-ups affecting several countries in the Middle East. Officials have not said whether Sunday’s strike was connected to the wider regional confrontation, and it remains unclear who was behind it.

What happens next

The first question is how quickly the field can be repaired and production restarted. That depends on the extent of the damage to the storage facility and the wider plant, which engineers are still assessing. Until gas flows again, the region’s power stations cannot run at full capacity.

The second question is who did it. The joint investigative committee ordered by Prime Minister al-Zaidi will examine the circumstances of the attack, but previous investigations into strikes on Khor Mor have not publicly identified those responsible.

The third question is what the Kurdish government does about the blackout. The electricity ministry has promised to keep hospitals and water plants running on hydroelectric power and alternative fuels. But if the shutdown lasts for days, the pressure on families, businesses and public services will grow fast.

There is also a longer-term question. Khor Mor has now been attacked repeatedly, and each attack has shut down most of the region’s electricity. The Kurdish authorities and the field’s operators will face renewed pressure to find another way to protect the facility — or to reduce the region’s dependence on a single source of power.

For now, the people of the Kurdistan Region are waiting in the dark for the lights to come back on.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the Khor Mor gas field?

Khor Mor is in the Chamchamal district of Sulaimaniyah governorate, in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. It is one of the largest natural gas fields in the region.

How much power did the attack knock out?

Between 2,500 and 2,800 megawatts of electricity generation, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Electricity. That is roughly 70 to 80 percent of the region’s power capacity, and it left more than 70 percent of the region without electricity.

Was anyone killed or injured?

No. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said there were no casualties as a result of the attack, based on an initial assessment.

Who carried out the attack?

No group has claimed responsibility, and officials say it is not yet clear who was behind it. A joint investigative committee has been ordered to look into the circumstances.

Has Khor Mor been attacked before?

Yes, several times. A drone strike in November 2025 set a storage tank on fire and halted supplies to power stations, and an attack in April 2024 killed four foreign workers. The field was also shut down in July 2026 because of security threats, before production restarted later that month.

Why does one gas field matter so much?

Most of the electricity in the Kurdistan Region is generated by burning gas from Khor Mor. When the field stops producing, the region’s power stations lose their fuel, and most of the region loses power at once.

Conclusion

The drone attack on Khor Mor is a reminder of how fragile the Kurdistan Region’s electricity supply really is. One strike on one facility has left more than 70 percent of the region without power, cut thousands of megawatts from the grid, and forced hospitals and water plants onto emergency supplies.

The field has been attacked before, and it will need more than repairs this time if the same thing is not to happen again. Until the damage is fixed, the attackers are identified and the region’s dependence on a single gas field is reduced, the people of Kurdistan will keep paying the price — in the dark.

Sources

• Reuters: “Production suspended at Iraq’s Khor Mor gas field after drone attack, sources say” — https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/production-suspended-iraqs-khor-mor-gas-field-after-drone-attack-sources-say-2026-11-08/
• Al Jazeera: “Drone attack suspends production at Iraq’s Khor Mor gasfield” — https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/9/drone-attack-suspends-production-at-iraqs-khor-mor-gasfield
• Al Mayadeen: “Kurdistan Region hit by power outages after attack on Khor Mor” — https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/kurdistan-region-hit-by-power-outages-after-attack-on-khor-m
• The Insight International: “Drone attack halts gas production at Khor Mor field” — https://theinsightinternational.com/drone-attack-halts-gas-production-at-khor-mor-field/
• AsiaOne: “Iraq: Khor Mor gas field drone attack” — https://legacy.asiaone.com/asia/iraq-khor-mor-gas-field-drone-attack

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.