Vehicles of the Iraqi army and the Hashd al-Shaabi, integrated into the Iraqi army, during a military operation in the desert areas of al-Hadar and al-Baaj, on May 17, 2026, up to the provinces bordering Syria. (Credit: Zaid al-Obeidi/AFP)
The New York Times (NYT) revealed in an investigation that Israel used a second secret base in the Iraqi desert for more than a year in order to support its wars against Iran. The U.S. daily also reports that an Iraqi shepherd was killed by Israeli agents after he accidentally discovered it.
The presence of a first Israeli outpost in Iraq had already been disclosed on May 9 by the Wall Street Journal. But Iraqi officials told the NYT that a second, previously unknown base was also set up by the Israeli military in the heart of the Najaf desert in the west of the country. This outpost was reportedly used since the “12-day war” in June 2025, as well as during the ongoing war launched by Israel and the U.S. against Iran on Feb. 28, as a logistical platform for its air force and special forces.
A shepherd and an Iraqi soldier killed
The existence of this second base, apparently established at the end of 2024, was known to the United States “since June 2025, if not earlier,” the article specifies. This caused significant turmoil in Baghdad, which accused Washington of hiding the presence of hostile forces on Iraqi soil, thereby breaking an official protocol requiring the United States to inform local authorities of any military activity in Iraq.
The discovery of this closely guarded secret by Israel was due to an Iraqi shepherd, named Awad al-Shammari, 29, who stumbled upon this clandestine outpost by chance while traveling toward the city of al-Nukhaib. He then alerted the regional military command to report what he had seen, before being killed.
Bedouins living nearby claimed to have witnessed an attack by a helicopter on the vehicle in which Awad al-Shammari was traveling. “We were told that a burned-out pickup similar to Awad’s was there, but no one dared go… When we arrived, we found the car and the body burned,” a cousin of the victim told the NYT.
The day after the murder, the Iraqi regional command sent a reconnaissance mission to try to clarify the circumstances of the incident. But as its units approached the area, they came under fire, forcing the Iraqi soldiers to retreat. The toll: one soldier killed, two others wounded, and two vehicles bombed.
Publicly, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command announced that “foreign” forces had attacked its soldiers and said it had referred the matter to the U.N. Security Council.
However, these revelations could further complicate U.S. efforts to limit Iranian influence in Iraq, notes the NYT, as the case is already being used by the pro-Iranian camp to denounce security cooperation between Baghdad and Washington.
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