BREAKING: Israel Built a Secret Base in the Iraqi Desert
A Wall Street Journal investigation reveals that Israel established a covert military outpost in Iraq before the war, used for logistics, rescue standby, and strikes on Iraqi forces who nearly uncovered it.
In the weeks before the United States and Israel launched their joint air campaign against Iran on February 28, 2026, Israel quietly erected a covert military outpost somewhere in the Iraqi desert, a forward base that would serve as both a logistical hub for the Israeli Air Force and a standby rescue platform if pilots went down over Iranian territory, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation citing American officials.
The base, built in secret and without Iraq's knowledge, housed Israeli special forces and was used as a staging area to support the sustained air campaign against Iran. Among its most sensitive functions: rescue and recovery teams, pre-positioned and ready to extract downed Israeli aircrews from Iranian territory at a moment's notice.
"Israel provided intelligence support and postponed planned strikes on Iran to avoid interfering with the search-and-rescue effort." — Israeli officials, via Military Times
That contingency nearly became reality on April 3, when an American F-15E Strike Eagle (call sign Dude 44) was shot down by an Iranian shoulder-fired missile. Both crew members ejected and landed in Iranian territory. What followed was one of the most dramatic rescue operations since the 1980 Eagle Claw mission: a 50-hour effort across two days involving 155 aircraft, hundreds of special operations troops, and a CIA deception campaign to shield the second crew member, a colonel, from Iranian search teams combing the Zagros Mountains.
According to the WSJ, when the F-15 was downed near Isfahan, Israel offered to deploy its rescue teams from the Iraq base. U.S. forces, however, ran their own successful operation without Israeli assistance. What Israel did provide was active air support: the IDF struck Iranian assets to disrupt Tehran's manhunt for the missing weapons systems officer, and Israeli officials confirmed that Israel paused its own planned strikes on Iran to avoid interfering with U.S. rescue operations.
The WSJ's account also contains a more dramatic detail: U.S. officials told the paper that the base was used at some point to strike Iraqi soldiers who were closing in on its location. The Iraqi military, operating nearby, nearly discovered the installation in the early days of the war, and Israeli forces are said to have conducted airstrikes to prevent detection, a remarkable act conducted in total secrecy.
Iraq has officially remained outside the conflict, its government attempting to balance longstanding ties with Iran against its relationship with the United States. The existence of a covert Israeli base on Iraqi soil and Israeli strikes against Iraqi soldiers to protect it, could represent a significant breach of Iraqi sovereignty and a potential flashpoint in an already volatile region.