US citizen killed in Iranian attack on Iraq's Kurdish region

Iran has launched ballistic missiles and drones into the region in recent weeks and months

A Kurdish peshmerga fighter in Iraq inspects damage following an Iranian cross-border attack. AFP

US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel on Thursday confirmed that an American citizen was killed in a recent Iranian rocket attack in Iraq's Kurdish region.

Mr Patel said he could not make any further comment on the case due to privacy considerations.

A number of ballistic missiles and drones have been launched by Iran into Iraq's Kurdish region in recent weeks and months.

In addition, on Wednesday, the US military said that it had downed an Iranian drone en route to Erbil, capital of Iraq's Kurdish region, with the Pentagon's Central Command (Centcom) saying that the drone had posed a threat to American forces.

But Washington said at the time that no US officials or military personnel had been killed in the strike. It is not known if the American citizen's death is connected to the drone downed by the US military.

“US Central Command condemns the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ unprovoked attack in Iraq’s Erbil governorate,” its statement read.

“Such indiscriminate attacks threaten innocent civilians and risk the hard-fought stability of the region.”

The drone downed by the US seemed to have been part of the latest move by Iran's IRGC to strike at separatist groups in Iraq.

Reuters contributed to this report