An Iraqi shepherd was blown up in an air strike on his pick up in the Najaf desert, which local people link to the reported presence of Israeli forces briefly occupying an abandoned air field – Copyright AFP Qassem al-KAABI<\/p>\n
Iraqi forces swept the country\u2019s desert areas after being placed on high alert following reports that Israeli troops had operated inside the country during the Middle East war.<\/p>\n
Early in the war, which was ignited by joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, foreign troops were detected in the Najaf desert in the country\u2019s southwest.<\/p>\n
Security officials and witnesses told AFP that a shepherd, who was the first to spot the troops, was killed when a helicopter struck his pickup.<\/p>\n
Iraqi authorities have acknowledged that \u201cunknown\u201d troops were present for no more than 48 hours in the Najaf desert, but they have not publicly identified them.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Who are these forces? \u2013<\/p>\n
Two Iraqi security sources told AFP that Israeli forces operated from the Najaf desert during the war.<\/p>\n
One security official said: \u201cIsraeli forces established a base on an abandoned airstrip built by Saddam Hussein in the Najaf desert.\u201d<\/p>\n
On May 9, the Wall Street Journal\u00a0reported that Israel set up a \u201cclandestine military outpost\u201d in the area, quoting anonymous sources, including US officials.<\/p>\n
The report said the installation housed special forces and served as a logistical hub for the Israeli air force \u201cwith the knowledge of the US\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another security official told AFP that Iraqi authorities asked the United States if the troops were theirs, but \u201cthey told us it wasn\u2019t them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US, which has troops in Iraq\u2019s north as part of an anti-jihadist coalition, has to inform Baghdad of any military activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A third security source, however, downplayed the claim, saying the foreign troops may have been \u201cUS forces, accompanied by an Israeli technical team.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said that the foreign forces used an old airstrip built by Saddam and that CH-57 Chinook helicopters were seen at the site in Najaf.<\/p>\n
\u2013 What happened in the desert? \u2013<\/p>\n
During the first week of the war, local media reports emerged of a shepherd who spotted military activity in the vast Najaf desert.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Security sources told AFP that the shepherd was killed when a helicopter fired on his pickup, which remains in the desert, according to an AFP correspondent.<\/p>\n
The shepherd was travelling to sell sheep, buy some essentials and refuel when he reportedly was caught off guard by foreign forces, according to witnesses who knew him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
AFP\u2019s correspondent reported seeing a grave, just six meters from the pickup, inscribed with a name and a date of death: March 3, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The grave may be symbolic or contain remains of the body, which was later buried in the holy city of Karbala, the witnesses said.<\/p>\n
It was not clear which forces struck the vehicle.<\/p>\n
On March 5, Qais al-Mohamadawi, Iraq\u2019s deputy commander of joint operations, told state media that Iraq protested to the US-led anti-jihadist coalition stationed in the country about an air raid in Najaf.<\/p>\n
He said that after receiving reports of \u201cindividuals or movement in the Najaf\u201d desert, Iraq\u2019s military sent a force to investigate.<\/p>\n
The troops came under heavy aerial fire, leaving one soldier dead and two others wounded.<\/p>\n
He added that at the site in Najaf, \u201cone force was providing support to another that was conducting reconnaissance or setting up equipment\u201d.<\/p>\n
Reinforcements were later sent to search the area, but \u201cdid not find anything\u201d, Mohamadawi said.<\/p>\n
How did Iraq react?<\/p>\n
Despite the media reports, Iraqi authorities have still not identified the foreign troops.<\/p>\n
One of the security officials said that\u00a0\u201cthe government cannot openly say they were Israeli forces because our troops did not engage directly with them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are things that we cannot talk about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On May 11, Iraq\u2019s military said its forces conducted sweeps in the deserts and border areas, insisting there are no \u201cunauthorised bases or forces on Iraqi soil at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
It warned against reports that \u201charm Iraq\u2019s reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israeli military did not respond to an AFP request for comment.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the rumour mill has not stopped.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The security official said that reports has also emerged about a possible Israeli presence in Nineveh province in the country\u2019s north, and troops were sent there for inspections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe deal with this matter as a rumour.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Iraqi shepherd was blown up in an air strike on his pick up in the Najaf desert,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[4589,13821,34,94,37,179,153,36],"class_list":["post-121449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-desert","tag-hide","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-israel","tag-military","tag-us","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116601969316656522","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}