Iraq’s Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rashid Yar Allah, visited a desert region of the country southwest of Najaf and Karbala on March 12. The goal of the visit was to demonstrate that Iraq can secure its own desert regions. The unstated reason for the visit is that this is an area that The Wall Street Journal had claimed there was a “secret” Israeli base in March. Iraq’s narrative is that the Iraqi army and Iranian-backed militias are now searching in the desert for a base that Iraq says did not exist.
Because of this, Yar Allah conducted a field supervision and secured the area of Al-Nukhib. This is a desert town basically in the middle of nowhere on Iraq’s Route 22, which runs from Najaf to the Saudi border at Arar. “In the context of his ongoing field follow-up on various sectors, Mr. Chief of Staff of the Army, First Lieutenant General of Special Forces Staff Abdul Amir Rashid Yar Allah, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, conducted field oversight of the security measures for the Al-Nukhayb Desert within the responsibility sector of the 41st Brigade affiliated with the Karbala Sacred Operations Command, accompanied by his deputy for operations, the commander of ground forces, the director of military intelligence, and the director of the media cell, with the commander of the Karbala Sacred Operations and a number of General Staff officers receiving them,” Iraq’s Ministry of Defense said.
The report said that the general inspected a site of an “incident” to review a “criminal event.” The report says he “issued a series of directives and recommendations to the military units, emphasizing the importance of maintaining the highest levels of readiness and preparedness to confront various security challenges.” He then “affirmed the inaccuracy of what was circulated in some media outlets regarding the presence of unlicensed forces inside the Al-Nukhayb Desert, clarifying that those claims were not based on facts or field evidence, especially in light of the repercussions the region has witnessed related to the regional conflict during the recent period.”
Iraq is saying that both nothing happened and that something happened
In essence, Iraq is saying that both nothing happened and that something happened. Iraq’s army is now being told to “defend” the desert and the homeland so that “Iraq will not be a launchpad or arena for aggression against neighboring countries.” Meanwhile, Iraq’s Defense Ministry also denied to Rudaw “claims that Israel had set up a ‘clandestine military outpost’ in a southern Iraq desert, describing the allegation as an exaggerated account of a single engagement that took place in early March.”
Iraq’s Major General Tahseen al-Khafaji, Director of Media and Moral Guidance at the ministry, said that “on March 3, we were alerted to the presence of armed individuals.” Iraq says it deployed to the area on March 4, and there was an airstrike in which one Iraqi soldier was killed. “Khafaji further noted that, while a small foreign force may have briefly established a presence in the area amid the broader regional conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran, a follow-up Iraqi mission on March 5 found no evidence of any installation.” Iraq claims “there was no base, no airstrip, nor any sign that any administrative or military work had been conducted there.”
The Iranian-backed militias, known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, had launched their own operation alongside the army. They sent the 2nd Brigade, which is linked to Badr, an organization that is close to Iran’s IRGC. This comes as Badr continues to pressure the Iraqi prime minister-designate Ali al-Zaydi. “[Member of Parliament] Shaker Abu Turab Al-Tamimi, from the Badr parliamentary bloc, revealed on Tuesday that disagreements continue within the Coordination Framework forces regarding the distribution of ministries, warning that Prime Minister-designate Ali Al-Zidi will fail to form a government if he does not present his cabinet by next Thursday,” Shafaq News said.
There is pressure from the US for Iraq to disarm Iranian-backed militias. The militias are not going to disarm, and they now appear to be pressuring the incoming prime minister. “An informed political source revealed on Tuesday that the insistence of some armed factions on refusing to disarm is behind the delay in announcing the government cabinet, while a political researcher attributed the delay in announcing the formation to the disagreements of some blocs over the distribution of ministerial portfolios, suggesting that al-Zidi might withdraw from the premiership on that basis,” Shafaq said.
This means that the large hunt in southern Iraq for what Iraq says is a nonexistent secret base may have larger repercussions in Baghdad. Iraq continues to show difficulty coordinating government formation and its security forces.