Iraqi civil servant Aliya Mohammed (left) and retired public sector employee Hussein Falah (right) speak to Rudaw on May 13, 2026 in Najaf, southern Iraq. Photo: Screengrab/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqis on Wednesday expressed concern over reports alleging the presence of a secret Israeli base in Iraq’s southern desert, despite authorities dismissing the claims as outdated images tied to a one-time incident in early March that killed one Iraqi soldier and injured two others.
“Where do I begin - with the Israelis, the United States, or the Iranian forces active in the country?” Hussein Falah, a retired government employee said.
“We do not have a strong government. We do not have an authority capable of securing our borders,” he lamented.
Similarly, Aliya Mohammed, a civil servant said the reports were “not a good thing, and they will affect our children,” adding, “The armed forces should be more vigilant and careful in protecting our territory.”
The unease on Iraqi streets, comes against the backdrop of a Saturday report by The Wall Street Journal, which stated that “Israel set up a clandestine military outpost in the Iraqi desert to support its air campaign against Iran and launched airstrikes against Iraqi troops who almost discovered it early in the war, people familiar with the matter, including U.S. officials, said.”
According to the newspaper, the installation “housed special forces and served as a logistical hub for the Israeli air force, just before the war started with the knowledge of the U.S.”
However, Major General Tahseen al-Khafaji, Director of Media and Moral Guidance at the Iraqi defense ministry, told Rudaw that the report relates to an incident in early March.
“We had received intelligence about the presence of armed men in the area who were speaking broken Arabic and carrying US-made weapons,” Khafaji said, adding that Iraqi forces “were deployed to the location; however, before reaching the identified site, our troops were struck by an airstrike, resulting in the martyrdom of one soldier and injuries to two others.”
Iraq’s Joint Operations Command on Monday firmly denied the presence of any “unauthorized bases or forces” in the country. The Command, which operates under the Iraqi premier, accused “some parties” of attempting to “politically exploit the incident” to “harm Iraq’s reputation and its security leadership.”
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