ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A US special force has landed in desert areas in Iraq’s Anbar, Najaf and Karbala provinces, resulting in reported clashes with Iraqi forces that left one soldier dead and two others wounded, according to Iraqi officials and security sources to Rudaw.
The Iraqi Joint Operations Command confirmed Wednesday that an Iraqi unit had come under attack during an operation in the desert area between Karbala and Najaf.
In a statement, the command said that “a force from the Karbala Operations Command, while conducting a search operation in the desert area between the provinces of Karbala and Najaf at dawn today, was subjected to an airstrike and gunfire, resulting in the martyrdom of one fighter and the injury of two” in what it described as a “reprehensible and deplorable incident.”
The command added that an investigative committee had been formed to determine the circumstances of the incident “to take appropriate legal action,” saying the act “constitutes a violation and an unjustified act” that will be “dealt with according to applicable military laws and customs.”
Officials and security sources told Rudaw that the incident followed the landing of US forces in remote desert areas near the borders of the three provinces.
A high-level security source in Karbala province also told Rudaw on Thursday that a US special force had landed in the Shannana area, located at the intersection of al-Nukhaib, Najaf, and Karbala.
The source said clashes occurred with Iraqi forces responding to the landing, resulting in deaths and injuries among Iraqi army personnel.
According to information from an official in the Rutba district of Anbar province, US forces landed in several strategic locations early Wednesday and are now stationed in two separate positions within the district. The source said that when Iraqi border guard units attempted to approach the landing site, they were met with gunfire, leaving several border guards wounded and resulting in the burning of four Iraqi border guard vehicles.
The official said that when Iraqi forces approached the area to investigate, clashes occurred, leaving one Iraqi soldier dead and two others wounded.
Former lawmaker Hassan al-Janabi, who heads the state affairs office in the Shiite Hikma Movement, told Rudaw that the forces involved were American and had landed in desert areas between Najaf and Karbala.
“Those forces are American and landed in the desert areas between Najaf and Karbala. When an Iraqi force approached them at a distance of two kilometers, they were fired upon by the Americans, resulting in the martyrdom of one soldier and the wounding of two others, and two Iraqi army Humvees were burned,” Janabi said.
He added that it remains unclear whether the landing was intended for a military operation or intelligence gathering, but stressed that officials were certain the forces were American and not Israeli.
According to information provided to Rudaw, the landing site is in the Shannana area, about 40 kilometers from the Nukhaib subdistrict and the Chlabat area on the border of the Rutba district. The location lies roughly 100 kilometers from the Rutba district center and between Rutba and the Saudi border.
The area falls within the operational responsibility of the Popular Mobilization Forces’ (PMF) Imam Ali Division - brigade 2 in the deserts of Najaf, as well as the Abbas Brigade in the Nukhaib desert.
An Iraqi security report on the incident obtained by Rudaw said the initial alert came from a shepherd in the area, who reported seeing an unknown force in the Shannana area, roughly 40 kilometers inside the Nukhaib subdistrict.
According to the report, the force arrived with several helicopters and a number of Humvee military vehicles.
Abdulkarim Khalaf, the former spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of Iraq’s armed forces, told local Iraqi media that security forces had been alerted by shepherds about the presence of “foreign forces” who had descended by air in the area.
He said Iraqi units moved to investigate but were “fired at” from around 18 kilometers away from the landing site.
“The matter is being followed up at the highest level in the Joint Operations Command,” Khalaf added.
Rutba district, Iraq’s largest by area, occupies a strategic geographic position in the country’s far west. The district includes the al-Walid and al-Nukhaib subdistricts, with the latter bordering Saudi Arabia.
The incident comes as Iraq finds itself increasingly caught in the crosshairs of the escalating conflict between the US-Israeli coalition and Iran. Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have rejected the use of their land as a launch pad against their neighbors and have denounced attacks on their territories.