Israel built secret Iraq base to support Iran air campaign, report says

Israel was reported to have built a secret base in the Iraqi desert shortly before the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran began on February 28, 2026, turning Iraqi territory into part of a hidden support network for the air campaign. The outpost reportedly housed Israeli special forces and search-and-rescue teams and functioned as a logistical hub for the Israeli Air Force, a setup that would have given Israel reach, rescue capacity, and deniability deep inside a neighboring state.

The reported site nearly came to light in early March after Iraqi state media said a local shepherd noticed unusual military activity, including helicopter movements in the area. Iraqi troops then moved to investigate, and the report said Israeli forces used airstrikes to keep them at a distance and prevent discovery of the base. If accurate, that sequence would mark an extraordinary escalation in the shadow war with Iran, because it would show Israeli operations not just crossing Iraqi airspace, but relying on a concealed presence on Iraqi soil.

The account also carried direct implications for Washington. The report said the United States knew about the base before the war began, a detail that raises hard questions about how much latitude U.S. officials gave to Israeli operations inside Iraq and how those operations were managed alongside American interests there. Iraq remains a sensitive theater for the United States, which still has security interests in the country and has long sought to avoid direct clashes that could widen into a regional fight.

Iraq later filed a complaint with the United Nations in March over an attack it attributed to foreign forces and airstrikes. A source cited in the report said the United States was not involved in that attack, but the complaint underscored how quickly Iraqi airspace and territory can become arenas for outside conflict. Reuters said it could not independently verify the account, and there was no immediate response from the Israeli prime minister’s office to a request for comment.

For Iraq, the allegations point to a deeper sovereignty problem: a state caught between Iranian-backed militias, U.S. forces, and Israeli strikes operating in the same battlespace. For Israel, the reported base suggests a more ambitious effort to sustain long-range air operations against Iran with forward staging, rescue support, and secrecy inside another country. If the account is borne out, it would signal a major shift in how the region’s most dangerous rivalry was being fought, and how far the conflict had already spilled beyond its declared front lines.