Illustrative image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
Open-source intelligence analysts have located the secret military base set up by Israel in the Iraqi desert to support the war against Iran.
The Wall Street Journal reported on May 9 that Israel built the base shortly before the American-Israeli war on Iran started on February 28, in order to serve as a hub for logistics in support of the Israeli Air Force.
To protect the outpost, Israeli troops even launched strikes against Iraqi forces who nearly discovered it in early March, the report added.
The strikes 4 on March killed one Iraqi soldier, the Iraqi government said at the time, after Iraqi media reported that a local shepherd witnessed “unusual military activity,” including helicopters and gunfire in a remote area close to the central city of Karbala.
According to the report, the deadly Israeli strikes succeeded in deterring Iraqi forces from further investigating the military base.
The base, located by open-source intelligence analysts, appears to be a makeshift airstrip in a dry lakebed, some 180 kilometers southwest of Karbala. It is seen in satellite imagery from the European Union’s Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem just days before the war began.
Click to see full-size image. (Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem/@obretix on X)
Right after the base was exposed, the Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported, citing an Iraqi source, that the Iraqi parliament will summon the country’s defense and interior ministers for questioning over the secret Israeli base.
A source in the Iraqi parliament told the newspaper that the ministers will be summoned along with commanders from Iraq’s security establishment.
Another security source also confirmed to the newspaper that the base had been located, and is currently “clear” and no Israeli military force remains there.
Israel’s success in building and defending a base inside Iraq was without a doubt a blow to Iran-aligned armed factions in the country. The factions likely tolerated the base because rumors that emerged at the time suggested that it was run by the U.S. Still, it is clear that no serious investigation was conducted by them at the time who was operating there.
If the war on Iran resumes, it will be harder for Israel to operate again in Iraq with such freedom. Thus, the exposure of the base was in a way a loss for Israel.
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