In Iraqi Desert, Two Israeli Outposts Were Kept Secret for Months

The truck rattling by at 2 pm on March 3 was a well-recognized sight to residents of the Bedouin encampment in Iraq’s rugged western desert — an area shepherd’s pickup, en path to the closest city of al-Nukhaib.

Its return a couple of hours later, flaming and riddled with bullets, was something however routine.

A helicopter was chasing the truck, three witnesses from the camp stated, firing on it repeatedly till it jerked to a halt within the sand.

The lethal assault, which has not been beforehand reported, happened after Awad al-Shammari, 29, set off on a grocery journey, his cousin, Amir al-Shammari, instructed The New York Times. Instead of creating it residence, the shepherd stumbled upon a carefully guarded Israeli army secret, hidden within the Iraqi desert. His household believes it price him his life.

Mr. al-Shammari’s discovery would finally reveal how Iraq had performed host to 2 covert bases operated intermittently by Israel, a hostile state, for nicely over a 12 months.

Sometime between beginning his ill-fated journey and its tough finish, Mr. al-Shammari had contacted Iraq’s regional army command to report what he had seen: troopers, helicopters and tents clustered round a touchdown strip. Israel was working a base there to assist its army operations in opposition to Baghdad’s regional accomplice, Iran, based on senior Iraqi and regional officers.

The presence of an Israeli outpost in Iraq was beforehand reported by The Wall Street Journal. Iraqi officers instructed The Times there was one other undisclosed second base additionally in Iraq’s western desert.

The base Mr. al-Shammari got here throughout predated the present battle between the United States, Israel and Iran, the regional safety officers stated, and was used throughout the 12-day battle in opposition to Tehran in June 2025.

Israeli forces started getting ready to construct the makeshift base way back to late 2024, one of many regional officers stated — figuring out distant websites from which to function in future conflicts.

Israel’s army declined repeated requests for touch upon the camps or on Mr. al-Shammari’s killing.

The witnesses to Mr. al-Shammari’s demise spoke on situation of anonymity, citing issues for their security. Most of the officers who mentioned the Israeli bases insisted on anonymity to debate a extremely delicate safety matter.

The info they shared signifies that not less than one of many bases — the one Mr. al-Shammari stumbled upon — had been recognized to Washington since June 2025 or presumably earlier. That would almost certainly imply Baghdad’s different key ally, the United States, had withheld from Iraq the truth that hostile forces have been on its soil.

“It shows a blatant disregard for Iraqi sovereignty, its government and its forces, as well as for the dignity of the Iraqi people,” stated Waad al-Kadu, an Iraqi lawmaker who attended a confidential parliamentary briefing about that base.

The US position in Iraqi safety was a part of Israel’s calculations in deciding it might safely function clandestinely in Iraq, the regional officers stated.

In each the transient battle final 12 months and the present battle, two Iraqi safety officers stated, Washington compelled Iraq to close down its radars to guard US plane, making Baghdad extra reliant on US forces to detect hostile exercise.

The disclosure of the bases increase uncomfortable questions for Iraq, too. Among them: Were its forces actually unaware of a overseas presence till a shepherd uncovered it? Or did they know, however selected to disregard it?

Either chance displays how Iraq, lengthy trapped in a tug of battle between Washington and Tehran, stays unable to train full management over its territory.

“The position of our security leaders is shameful,” Mr. al-Kadu stated.

Maj. Gen. Ali al-Hamdani, commander of the Iraqi army’s Western Euphrates Forces, stated the military had suspected an Israeli presence within the desert for over a month earlier than the shepherd’s discovery.

“Until now,” he stated, “the government has been silent about it.”

Iraq’s authorities, for whom acknowledging Israeli outposts is fraught, has nonetheless not acknowledged the Israeli bases. Iraq has no diplomatic relations with Israel, and its inhabitants sees Israel as an enemy. Lt. Gen. Saad Maan, a spokesperson for Iraq’s safety forces, instructed The Times that Iraq “has no information regarding the locations of any Israeli military bases.”

Growing outrage in Iraq over the revelations might threaten US efforts to curb Iranian affect within the nation, even because the battle’s consequence stays unsure.

Two regional safety officers stated the bottom Mr. al-Shammari uncovered was utilized by Israel for air assist, refueling and to supply medical remedy.

The outpost was made to shorten distances Israeli plane needed to fly to achieve Iran. It was supposed as solely a short lived presence to help with army operations — like these within the June 2025 battle, throughout which, the 2 regional officers stated, the bottom proved extraordinarily helpful.

In a speech after final 12 months’s battle, Israel’s army chief of employees, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, stated the success of Israeli operations was made doable “among other things, by integration and deception carried out by air forces and ground commando forces.”

The Pentagon’s Central Command, which oversees operations within the Middle East, declined to touch upon Israeli operations in Iraq, referring inquiries to the Israel Defense Forces.

But former prime US army commanders, Pentagon officers and American diplomats who served within the area stated it was inconceivable, given the US army’s shut ties with the Israeli army, that Central Command didn’t know in regards to the Israeli presence in western Iraq.

A harmful secret

For weeks, Bedouin communities in Iraq’s western desert had been reporting uncommon army exercise to Iraq’s regional command, based on General al-Hamdani, the regional commander.

The military determined to not method, he stated, and as a substitute carried out “surveillance monitoring” from afar of what commanders suspected have been Israeli forces. They requested info from their US counterparts, however obtained no response.

On the day Mr. al-Shammari stumbled upon the overseas forces, he additionally contacted the native authorities, based on his cousin and Maj. Gen. Fahim al-Gurayti, the spokesperson for the regional Karbala Operations Command.

Shortly after that, General al-Gurayti and Mr. al-Shammari’s household stated, the military and his kinfolk misplaced contact with him.

His household searched two days earlier than discovering the Bedouin residents who had witnessed his killing, studying what had develop into of him.

“We were told that a burned-up pickup truck the same as Awad’s was out there, but no one dared to go there,” the cousin, Amir, stated. “When we got there, we found the car and body burned.”

His household shared pictures of his bloodied corpse, his head and fingers blackened, and his charred pickup truck. They buried his physique subsequent to the automobile, beneath a easy grey tombstone.

A day after the shepherd’s report, Iraq’s regional command dispatched a reconnaissance mission, based on General al-Gurayti and General al-Hamdani.

As the models approached the world, they got here below fireplace, based on a press release launched a day later by Iraq’s Joint Operations Command. One soldier was killed, two have been wounded and two automobiles have been bombed earlier than the models determined to retreat.

Top Iraqi safety officers in Baghdad have been struggling to grasp what had occurred.

Two senior officers stated their efforts have been repeatedly pissed off by prime army commanders, who performed down the incident.

In public, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command introduced “foreign” forces had attacked their troopers, and stated it had raised complaints on the UN Security Council.

In personal, the chief of employees of Iraq’s armed forces, Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah, referred to as his counterparts within the US army, based on General al-Hamdani and the 2 senior Iraqi officers. “They confirmed the force is not an American force,” General al-Hamdani stated. “So we understood it was Israeli.”

Four days after the assault on the Iraqi troopers, on March 8, the Iraqi Parliament compelled army leaders to supply a confidential debriefing. Lawmakers who have been current stated they might not disclose particulars. But considered one of them, Hassan Fadaam, instructed The Times that Israel had established not less than one different outpost inside Iraq.

“The one in al-Nukhaib is just the only one that was found out,” he stated.

A second Iraqi official confirmed the existence of a second base, with out giving a location aside from saying it was additionally in a western desert area.

Official protocol requires Washington to tell Baghdad of any actions on Iraqi soil, based on a former and a present senior Iraqi official.

That meant Washington both hid the Israeli exercise, these officers stated, or knowledgeable Iraq’s prime command of the operations, who saved them confidential. The officers thought it was extraordinarily unlikely, nonetheless, that Iraqi leaders knew the presence was Israeli till the publicity by the shepherd, and almost certainly assumed the websites have been American.

The balancing act

Ever for the reason that US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Baghdad has struggled with a political balancing act between its former occupier, Washington, and its highly effective neighbor, Iran.

The Trump administration has put immense strain on Iraq to curb Iranian affect. In specific, Washington desires Iraq to disarm militia figures aligned with Iran, and block them from roles within the authorities and safety forces.

For years, Iraqi leaders have been both unable or unwilling to try this, elevating tensions with Washington.

The Israeli bases in Iraq put an already wobbly equilibrium at higher threat, stated Ramzy Mardini, founding father of Geopol Labs, a Middle East-based threat advisory agency.

“Engagement with the US now risks being framed as alignment with Israel,” he stated. “If the war with Iran resumes, it could provide a pretext for more direct Iranian military involvement in Iraq.”

It might additionally give Iran-aligned militias grounds to refuse to disarm, he stated.

Today, the Israeli base in al-Nukhaib is now not operational. The standing of the opposite Israeli outpost in Iraq is unknown.

The household of the shepherd says his killing has been ignored.

“They demand the government investigate this incident and why it happened,” his cousin, Amir, stated. “They want their rights respected.”

Aaron Boxerman, Sanjana Varghese, Eric Schmitt, Christoph Koettl and Devon Lum contributed reporting.