The truck rattling by at 2 p.m. on March 3 was a well-known 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 number of hours later, flaming and riddled with bullets, was something however routine.
A helicopter was chasing the truck, three witnesses from the camp mentioned, firing on it repeatedly till it jerked to a halt within the sand.
The lethal assault, which has not been beforehand reported, occurred after Awad al-Shammari, 29, set off on a grocery journey, his cousin, Amir al-Shammari, informed The New York Instances. As a substitute of constructing it house, the shepherd stumbled upon a carefully guarded Israeli army secret, hidden within the Iraqi desert. His household believes it value him his life.
Mr. al-Shammari’s discovery would in the end reveal how Iraq had performed host to 2 covert bases operated intermittently by Israel, a hostile state, for nicely over a 12 months.
Someday between beginning his ill-fated journey and its ugly 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 towards Baghdad’s regional associate, Iran, in response to senior Iraqi and regional officers.
The presence of an Israeli outpost in Iraq was beforehand reported by The Wall Road Journal. Iraqi officers informed The Instances there was one other undisclosed second base additionally in Iraq’s western desert.
The bottom Mr. al-Shammari got here throughout predated the present conflict between the US, Israel and Iran, the regional safety officers mentioned, and was used through the 12-day conflict towards Tehran in June 2025.
Israeli forces started getting ready to construct the makeshift base way back to late 2024, one of many regional officers mentioned — 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 his or her security. Many of the officers who mentioned the Israeli bases insisted on anonymity to debate a extremely delicate safety matter.
The data they shared signifies that at the very least one of many bases — the one Mr. al-Shammari stumbled upon — had been recognized to Washington since June 2025 or probably earlier. That will almost definitely imply Baghdad’s different key ally, the US, had withheld from Iraq the truth that hostile forces had been on its soil.
“It exhibits a blatant disregard for Iraqi sovereignty, its authorities and its forces, in addition to for the dignity of the Iraqi individuals,” mentioned Waad al-Kadu, an Iraqi lawmaker who attended a confidential parliamentary briefing about that base.
The U.S. position in Iraqi safety was a part of Israel’s calculations in deciding it might safely function clandestinely in Iraq, the regional officers mentioned.
In each the temporary conflict final 12 months and the present battle, two Iraqi safety officers mentioned, Washington compelled Iraq to close down its radars to guard U.S. plane, making Baghdad extra reliant on U.S. forces to detect hostile exercise.
The disclosure of the bases increase uncomfortable questions for Iraq, too. Amongst them: Have been its forces actually unaware of a overseas presence till a shepherd uncovered it? Or did they know, however selected to disregard it?
Both chance displays how Iraq, lengthy trapped in a tug of conflict between Washington and Tehran, stays unable to train full management over its territory.
“The place of our safety leaders is shameful,” Mr. al-Kadu mentioned.
Maj. Gen. Ali al-Hamdani, commander of the Iraqi army’s Western Euphrates Forces, mentioned the military had suspected an Israeli presence within the desert for over a month earlier than the shepherd’s discovery.
“Till now,” he mentioned, “the federal 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 spokesman for Iraq’s safety forces, informed The Instances that Iraq “has no info relating to the places of any Israeli army bases.”
Rising outrage in Iraq over the revelations might threaten U.S. efforts to curb Iranian affect within the nation, even because the conflict’s final result stays unsure.
Two regional safety officers mentioned the bottom Mr. al-Shammari uncovered was utilized by Israel for air assist, refueling and to offer medical remedy.
The outpost was made to shorten distances Israeli plane needed to fly to succeed in Iran. It was meant as solely a short lived presence to help with army operations — like these within the June 2025 conflict, throughout which, the 2 regional officers mentioned, the bottom proved extraordinarily helpful.
In a speech after final 12 months’s conflict, Israel’s army chief of employees, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, mentioned the success of Israeli operations was made attainable “amongst different issues, by integration and deception carried out by air forces and floor commando forces.”
The Pentagon’s Central Command, which oversees operations within the Center East, declined to touch upon Israeli operations in Iraq, referring inquiries to the Israel Protection Forces.
However former prime U.S. army commanders, Pentagon officers and American diplomats who served within the area mentioned it was inconceivable, given the U.S. 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, in response to Basic al-Hamdani, the regional commander.
The military determined to not method, he mentioned, and as a substitute performed “surveillance monitoring” from afar of what commanders suspected had been Israeli forces. They requested info from their U.S. counterparts, however obtained no response.
On the day Mr. al-Shammari stumbled upon the overseas forces, he too contacted the native authorities, in response to his cousin and Maj. Gen. Fahim al-Gurayti, the spokesman for the regional Karbala Operations Command.
Shortly after that, Basic al-Gurayti and Mr. al-Shammari’s household mentioned, the military and his family misplaced contact with him.
His household searched two days earlier than discovering the Bedouin residents who had witnessed his killing, studying what had grow to be of him.
“We had been informed {that a} burned-up pickup truck the identical as Awad’s was on the market, however nobody dared to go there,” the cousin, Amir, mentioned. “After we obtained there, we discovered the automobile and physique burned.”
His household shared images of his bloodied corpse, his head and fingers blackened, and his charred pickup truck. They buried his physique subsequent to the car, beneath a easy grey tombstone.
A day after the shepherd’s report, Iraq’s regional command dispatched a reconnaissance mission, in response to Basic al-Gurayti and Basic al-Hamdani.
Because the models approached the realm, they got here below hearth, in response to an announcement launched a day later by Iraq’s Joint Operations Command. One soldier was killed, two had been wounded and two autos had been bombed earlier than the models determined to retreat.
High Iraqi safety officers in Baghdad had been struggling to grasp what had occurred.
Two senior officers mentioned their efforts had been repeatedly annoyed by prime army commanders, who performed down the incident.
In public, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command introduced “overseas” forces had attacked their troopers, and mentioned it had raised complaints on the U.N. Safety Council.
In non-public, the chief of employees of Iraq’s armed forces, Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah, known as his counterparts within the U.S. army, in response to Basic al-Hamdani and the 2 senior Iraqi officers. “They confirmed the pressure will not be an American pressure,” Basic al-Hamdani mentioned. “So we understood it was Israeli.”
4 days after the assault on the Iraqi troopers, on March 8, the Iraqi Parliament compelled army leaders to offer a confidential debriefing. Lawmakers who had been current mentioned they may not reveal particulars. However one in every of them, Hassan Fadaam, informed The Instances that Israel had established at the very least one different outpost inside Iraq.
“The one in al-Nukhaib is simply the one one which was discovered,” he mentioned.
A second Iraqi official confirmed the existence of a second base, with out giving a location apart from saying it was additionally in a western desert area.
Official protocol requires Washington to tell Baghdad of any actions on Iraqi soil, in response to a former and a present senior Iraqi official.
That meant Washington both hid the Israeli exercise, these officers mentioned, or knowledgeable Iraq’s prime command of the operations, who stored 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 definitely assumed the websites had been American.
The balancing act
Ever for the reason that U.S. 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 stress on Iraq to curb Iranian affect. Particularly, 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 had been both unable or unwilling to do this, elevating tensions with Washington.
The Israeli bases in Iraq put an already wobbly equilibrium at larger danger, mentioned Ramzy Mardini, founding father of Geopol Labs, a Center East-based danger advisory agency.
“Engagement with the U.S. now dangers being framed as alignment with Israel,” he mentioned. “If the conflict with Iran resumes, it might present a pretext for extra direct Iranian army involvement in Iraq.”
It might additionally give Iran-aligned militias grounds to refuse to disarm, he mentioned.
Right now, the Israeli base in al-Nukhaib is now not operative. 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 federal government examine this incident and why it occurred,” his cousin, Amir, mentioned. “They need his rights revered.”
Aaron Boxerman, Sanjana Varghese, Eric Schmitt, Christoph Koettl and Devon Lum contributed reporting.
