Great Satan US Upgrading Al-Qayyara to Largest Base in Iraq despite Nationwide Opposition

The Arabic-language Abaa news website quoted a security source as saying on Tuesday that the US forces have started upgrading the airbase in Southern Mosul.

“The US has deployed a large number of military equipment in the airbase and has started reconstructing and upgrading it,” he added.

The United States is seeking to increase of its military and intelligence presence in Iraq’s Western province of Anbar and the country’s Northern province of Nineveh.

The US military have recently increased their troops in Ayn al-Asad airbase in Anbar province, as well as in al-Qayyara airbase in South of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province despite opposition by the Iraqi public opinion and politicians.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari underlined in February that the fight against terrorism in Iraq is led by Baghdad, adding that Iraq doesn’t need foreign forces or military bases.

“We have clearly spoken about this issue since 2014. I have said in New York (UN General Assembly meeting) transparently that we don’t need forces and military bases of other countries in Iraq,” al-Jaafari said.

“The battlefield command in the war against ISIL in Iraq was done by Baghdad. We couldn’t accept non-Iraqi command in battle against terrorism because our people were concerned that such an incident could become a prelude for the establishment of foreign military bases in Iraq as it happened in certain countries,” he added.

“We feared that our fate would be similar to the Incerlik base in Turkey or some bases in Germany, Japan and (South) Korea,” al-Jaafari said.

Also in the same month, Kenan Tuzlu, commander of the Turkmen unit of the Iraqi popular forces of Hashd al-Shaabi, emphasized that “American forces are aggressive, occupying forces” and demanded their withdrawal from Iraq.

“We don’t want the US or any other foreign military’s presence in Iraq. We consider it unacceptable. There is no rational explanation for the American presence in our country, Tuzlu said.

Also last month, Spokesman and a senior commander of Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Battalions) popular forces Jafar al-Hosseini warned that the chances are more than ever that clashes break out between them and the US military men deployed in the Arab country.

“Clashes may break out with the Americans at any time, and this time no mediation will help the Americans and it is not like the past,” al-Hosseini was quoted by the Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news channel as saying.

He described the US military deployment as occupation of Iraq, and said, “It was the Americans who brought the ISIL to Iraq to have a pretext to return.”

With new parliamentary elections scheduled for May 12, Iraqi leaders and citizens will have the singular opportunity to rise above the last 15 years of war and choose a government that embraces the many religious and ethnic groups of Iraq.

But analysts believe that the US attempts to reinvigorate military presence in Iraq will hinder efforts to establish full democracy in the Arab country.

Iraq’s parliament demanded earlier this month that the government set a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign troops stationed in the country.

The speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Saleem al-Jubouri, puts it like this, “We don’t need more weapons or training as much as we need open minds and a willingness to co-exist peacefully and respect diversity.”

Al-Qayyara Airfield West is a former Iraqi Air Force base in the Qayyara district of Mosul in Northern Iraq. It was captured by the US-led coalition forces in 2003. It was also known as Q–West or Key West by the various US army forces.

Formerly known as Saddam Airbase, the facility is located 16 kilometers West of the Tigris River, 20 kilometers West of Qayyara town, 60 kilometers South of Mosul and about 300 kilometers North of Baghdad.

The airfield is served by two main runways measuring 11,500 and 11,800 feet. The airfield has at least 33 dispersed hardened aircraft shelters and once housed MiG 25s and 27s and M-1 Mirage fighters.

There are two Weapon Storage Areas (WSA) located 10 and 12 kilometers to the North that are probably associated with Qayyara West. WSA 1 has 30 munition storage igloos and is 1640 acres in size. WSA 2 has 42 munition storage igloos and is 800 acres in size.

Qayyara West AB was built in the late 1970s and was one of several Iraqi Air Force airfields of the 1970s which were re-built under project “Super-Base” in response to experiences from the Arab-Israeli wars in 1967 and 1973. It became a major airfield during the 1980s war with Iran.