Iraq

Iraqi Sources: Israeli Military Aircraft Deployed US Military Base in Iraq

Zionist regime’s warplanes have been stationed in a military air base controlled by the US in Ain al-Assad region to enable them to raid the military positions of Hashd al-Sha’abi (Iraq’s popular forces) in Iraq, the Arabic-language media outlets reported.

The Arabic-language al-Mayadeen News TV network quoted Iraqi military commanders sources as saying that as per intel obtained from Hashd al-Sha’abi, the Israeli fighter jets are now in Iraq and they are in the US-controlled military base in Ain al-Assad.

It, meantime, quoted Iraqi sources as saying that Washington is trying to collect information on Baghdad’s official stance after the recent development in Iraq.

A member of Iraq’s Security and Defense Committee, Karim Alivi, said that evidence shows most of the attacks conducted on Iraqi positions, including Amerli and Saqaq garrisons, have been conducted by Israeli fighter jets.

Alivi, meantime, pointed to Israel’s efforts to weaken Hashd al-Sha’abi by conducting such attacks and also to assassinate Hashd al-Sha’abi commanders, and said that the Iraqi airspace is controlled by US Air Force and no drone or F35 aircraft can appear in Iraq’s airspace without prior notification to Washington.

In a relevant development on Thursday, second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, held the United States fully responsible for recent attacks on the volunteer forces.

He said in a statement that the US, which has contributed to the emergence of terrorist groups in the Middle East, is now considering various ways to violate Iraq’s sovereignty and targeting the PMU.

“We have accurate and credible information that Americans brought in four Israeli drones this year via Azerbaijan to operate within the US fleet to carry out sorties aimed at Iraqi military headquarters. We also have other information, maps and recordings of all types of American aircraft, when they took off, when they landed and the number of hours they flew,” al-Mohandes pointed out.

“Instead of chasing Daesh terrorists, US military aircraft are collecting information and data concerning the brigades of Popular Mobilization Units, and their warehouses and arms depots,” the statement added.

Sayf al-Badr, the spokesman of the Iraqi Health Ministry, said in a statement that at least one person was killed and 29 others were wounded in a powerful explosion, which rocked a military base in Southern Baghdad on August 12.

An unnamed source from Iraq’s Interior Ministry stated that an ammunition warehouse exploded inside a federal police military base, named Falcon, in Owerij area near the Southern district of Doura.

The source added that the blast was followed by a series of explosions at the warehouse that sent a large amount of shrapnel to nearby houses.

Arabic-language al-Ahad TV television network reported in mid-July that a drone had dropped explosives onto a base belonging to Popular Mobilization Units near the town of Amerli, located about 170 kilometers North of the capital Baghdad, killing at least one PMU fighter and injuring four others.

Video footage broadcast by Iraqi channels showed a blaze burning at the site and plumes of thick smoke billowing. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Moreover, the Iraqi al-Etejah television network reported that an American B350 reconnaissance plane had flown over the area a few days earlier.

In January, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hinted during a visit to Iraq that the Israeli regime could launch attacks against Hashd al-Sha’abi forces, who played a key role in the Iraqi army’s counter-terrorism battles against the ISIL terrorist group and helped the government to rid the country of the Takfiri outfit in late 2017.

Pompeo was reported to have made it clear to Iraqi officials at a meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi that Washington would not react to possible Israeli attacks against Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters.

Abdul-Mahdi expressed concern about the statement and warned Pompeo that such actions by Israel would have grave consequences, Russia’s RT Arabic television news network reported back then.

Reacting to the reports, Moein al-Kazemi, a Hashd al-Shaabi commander, stated that the force was ready to deliver a “strong” response to any aggression, advising the regime in Tel Aviv not to “play with fire”.

The Israeli regime has a record of attacking the forces fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in Syria.

In June 2018, Hashd al-Shaabi fighters came under attack in Syria’s border town of al-Hari, in the Eastern province of Deir Ezzur, as they were chasing Daesh terrorists out of the area.

Both the Syrian government and Hashd al-Shaabi declared back then that the attack near the Iraqi-Syrian border had been deliberate and could only have been carried out by either Israel or the United States.

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