ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq on Thursday lodged a “protest memorandum” with the US-led international coalition over what security officials described as an “airborne operation” a day earlier that resulted in a deadly confrontation with Iraqi forces in the country’s southern desert, slamming the incident as “treacherous” and stressing that Baghdad will not allow any force to “tamper with the country’s security.”
The state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA) cited Lieutenant General Qais al-Muhammadawi, deputy commander of Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC), as saying authorities had “received reports about the presence of individuals or movements in the desert of Najaf province [in southern Iraq], near the border with Karbala province.”
Muhammadawi added that a force “comprising three regiments from the Karbala Operations Command was tasked with investigating the matter,” noting that “the force came [at dawn Wednesday] under heavy gunfire from the air, resulting in the death of one soldier and the injury of two others.”
“The force was then reinforced with two regiments from the Counter-Terrorism Service [CTS] to search the area,” Muhammadawi added. “They inspected the location but found nothing.”
The top commander added that “there was no agreement or approval for any force to be present in this location,” claiming the foreign forces - believed to be affiliated with the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State (ISIS) - were allegedly “supporting another force that was attempting to conduct reconnaissance or install equipment” in the area.
Hinting that the operation may have been aiming to collect intelligence about the Iran-aligned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) - an umbrella organization of Iraqi armed groups that includes factions aligned with the Iran-led ‘Axis of Resistance’ - Muhammadawi said the PMF “are part of the country’s security system” and report to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the Iraqi prime minister.
In recent days, shadowy armed groups with suspected links to PMF factions have claimed responsibility for a series of attacks targeting alleged US interests in the region, including in the Kurdistan Region. The militias say the attacks are part of their response to the ongoing US-Israeli campaign against Iran, which began on Saturday and killed Iran’s longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an airstrike on Tehran.
Nonetheless, the JOC commander said Thursday, “We have issued orders for security forces to be deployed across all areas, including desert regions,” adding that “a protest memorandum has been submitted to the [US-led] Global Coalition requesting clarification.”
Muhammadawi added, “We will not allow any force on the ground that does not serve Iraq’s interests or that tampers with its security,” condemning the incident as “treacherous and cowardly” and noting that “the force arrived without coordination or approval.”
Operational details
Separately, top Iraqi security officials and well-placed sources told Rudaw on Thursday that the incident followed the landing of US forces in remote desert areas near the borders of Iraq’s western Anbar province and southern Najaf and Karbala provinces.
A high-level security source in Karbala said the US special forces had landed in the Shannana area of the al-Nukhaib desert, which serves as the primary gateway connecting the three provinces.
Shannana, is about 40 kilometers from the Nukhaib subdistrict at the border of the al-Rutba district, situated in the far western and southwestern portion of Anbar and occupying a vast desert plateau that borders Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.
The reported landing area is believed to fall within the operational responsibility of the Imam Ali Combat Division, officially designated as the PMF’s 2nd Brigade.
A local official from Rutba district told Rudaw on Thursday that “US forces had landed in several strategic locations early Wednesday and are now stationed in two separate positions within the district.” He added that “Iraqi security forces who attempted to approach the landing site were met with gunfire, leaving several wounded and resulting in the burning of four of their vehicles.”
Of note, Rudaw was unable to independently confirm the latter claims.
Meanwhile, former Iraqi lawmaker Hassan al-Janabi, who heads the state affairs office in the Hikmah Movement led by influential Shiite cleric Ammar al-Hakim, told Rudaw that “the deployed troops are American,” noting 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.”