Iraq’s western desert region is vast and sparsely populated
Times of Israel – ToI staff May 10, 2026
Israel reportedly set up a secret military base in the Iraqi desert in February in order to support its aerial campaign against Iran.
According to a Saturday report in the Wall Street Journal, citing US officials and other sources, Israel built the base shortly before the US-Israeli strikes on Iran started on February 28, to serve as a hub for logistics to support the Israeli Air Force.
It also housed special forces troops and search-and-rescue teams poised to act if any Israeli pilots were downed, the report said. To protect the outpost, Israeli troops even launched airstrikes against Iraqi forces who nearly discovered it in early March, according to the newspaper.
The strikes killed one Iraqi soldier, Baghdad said at the time, after Iraqi media reported that a local shepherd witnessed “unusual military activity,” including helicopters and gunfire in a remote area. According to the Journal, the Israeli strikes succeeded in deterring Iraqi forces from any further investigation.
The IDF declined to comment on the report.
Iraq, which initially blamed the March attack on the US, said at the time: “This reckless operation was carried out without coordination or approval.”
The US was not involved in the operation, sources told the American news outlet.
“It appears there was a certain force on the ground before the strike,
supported from the air, operating beyond the capabilities of our units,” a top Iraqi military official said at the time.
The report pointed to a statement made in March by then-Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, when he said that special forces had been conducting “extraordinary” operations during the conflict with Iran.
“The troops of the air force’s special units are currently carrying out extraordinary missions that can spark one’s imagination,” Bar said, without elaborating further.
According to an expert speaking to the WSJ, the western desert of Iraq, where the reported base was located, is a perfect spot for a clandestine military outpost, given its sparse population and vast size.
“It’s normal that before operations you reconnoiter and set up these kinds of locations,” Michael Knights, the head of the Horizon Engage intelligence firm, told the newspaper.
Iraq, which lies in a key location between Jordan and Iran, was dragged into the Iran war amid strikes in its territory from both sides, as it has long walked a tightrope between its relationship to both Washington and Tehran.
The US has long demanded that Baghdad disarm powerful Iran-backed groups, which the US designates as terrorist organizations and which hold significant sway inside Iraq.
During the war, these groups targeted American interests in Iraq, including the US embassy in Baghdad, its diplomatic and logistics facility at the capital’s airport, and oil fields operated by foreign companies.
US forces repeatedly struck their positions and bases in response, killing dozens of fighters.
Agencies contributed to this report.
Jew lies !!!
God bless Saddam; he protected Christians, made the factions work together, built infrastructure and kept the Mossad shit stains OUT.
Not buying this…
Iran had not detected this previously with all its hi-tech and other assets ?
Right….
“Existential”: Israel Quadruples Foreign-Influence Budget To Massive $730M
Tyler Durden’s Photo
by Tyler Durden
Friday, May 08, 2026 – 12:00 AM
With the ranks of its foreign sympathizers plummeting all around the world and all across the political spectrum, the State of Israel is quadrupling its budget for so-called “public diplomacy,” bringing its 2026 spending on foreign influence campaigns to a massive $730 million.
With the country’s growing unpopularity threatening US financial, military and diplomatic support, Israel’s foreign minister has said an intensified effort to mold global opinion is an “existential issue.” Both inside and outside of Israel, the country’s public diplomacy effort is also referred to by its Hebrew name: hasbara. Even before the 2026 ramp-up in spending, Israel’s spending on hasbara was already striking.
Recent disclosures about 2025 hasbara spending shed some light on how Israel goes about shaping public opinion. Per the Jerusalem Post, that year’s outlays included a $50 million social media ad campaign carried out on Google, YouTube, X and Outbrain. Another $40 million covered the hosting of foreign delegations. “We flew a lot of delegations to the country – whether it’s pastors, whether it’s politicians, universities,” Israeli Consul General Israel Bachar told the Jerusalem Post. “Everyone who returns from the country understands better and is more supportive. But you have to fly out a lot of people.”
READ MORE :
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/existential-israel-quadruples-foreign-influence-budget-massive-730m
@Heinrich
So much makeup to hide the ugly face below it.
Homosexual Vicar exposed by Telegraph over naked beatings of boys is found guilty
Story by Gabriella Swerling, Fiona Parker •
A former Church of England vicar exposed by The Telegraph seven years ago for carrying out naked beatings
on young boys has been found guilty.
Jonathan Fletcher, 84, a former vicar at Emmanuel Church, Wimbledon, was a “superstar” evangelical preacher, celebrated for his intellect and charisma.
Jonathan Fletcher, 84, a former vicar claimed the bible said the wicked must be punished, and young boys were beaten and raped
However, in December 2019, a Telegraph investigation revealed how bullying and intimidation were rife throughout his reign, and played out via a toxic combination of power, prayer and punishment.
Now, seven years after the allegations emerged, a jury has returned a verdict over claims he indecently assaulted young men over a period of more than two decades while exerting “long-term control” over them through spiritual discipline humiliation an beatings with a bamboo cane.
One claimant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said that he was left suicidal by the violent beatings and rapings and told how the vicar encouraged them to nob each other for jesus
Jurors at Kingston Crown Court delivered their verdict of “he did the act” on eightrrn counts of indecent assault alleged to have taken place between 1973-1999, including allegations of repeated assaults over multiple periods of time.
The jurors had heard a “trial of the facts” against Fletcher, after he was deemed unfit to stand trial because of dementia.
A trial of the facts is a legal procedure that can sometimes be held if a court determines that a person is unfit to stand trial.
It is a public hearing that takes the place of a criminal trial and seeks to determine whether an accused has committed the acts alleged.
Fletcher indecently assaulted a young man over 20 years, the trial of facts found
Fletcher indecently assaulted one young man for over 20 years, the trial of facts found, he claimed ” the lad deserved it ”
While it cannot result in a conviction, if the court is not satisfied that the accused committed the acts, they will be acquitted.
A total of 27 men came forward to give evidence to the 2021 report, which found that the former vicar had exposed victims to bullying, spiritual abuse, ice baths naked massages and sodomy, for their sins
Fletcher, who served as vicar of Emmanuel Church in south-west London from 1982 until his 2012 retirement, was closely linked to John Smyth, the Church of England’s most prolific serial boy abuser, and TV s Jimmy Saville
Seven years ago, a number of Fletcher’s alleged victims came forward to speak out about how his violent naked beatings and nobbings ice baths and psychological manipulation left them feeling like “a neglected and abused dog”.
Fletcher who carried a bamboo cane everywhere previously admitted to subjecting a prayer group to naked beatings as “light-hearted forfeits” if they failed to maintain “healthy and holy living” in a “system of mutual encouragement for jesus”.
However, he explained that they would be administered for reasons such as eating chocolate, drinking alcohol or watching pornography.
yet the court heard it was agreed by both prosecution and defence that Fletcher caned the claimants bottom “on many occasion over a period of years”
The victim described Fletcher as “very witty, very clever, very charismatic, glamorous, he was a superstar”.
but also a homosexual pervert
He added that he first met Fletcher at a Christian Pathfinder camp in Easter 1969 when he was 13, describing how the then youth leader became an increasingly dominant spiritual influence in his life through Bible studies, camps and personal mentoring.
He would take monetary collections for israel, and you had to be generous
“He was the instrument to conversion,” he told police. “I really looked at him as a model and guidance for everything I deal with
and was told jesus wanted him punished.”
‘Brutal beating’
The jury heard the victim describe one “particularly brutal rape and beating” after which he spent weeks thinking about “the easiest, quickest way to kill myself”.
“He put everything into it,” the claimant said of Fletcher. “God wants this, as if it was perfectly normal.”
The victim told police: “I went along with it as I was 13 when I first met him, 16 when I got to realise it was not for jesus
I looked up to him.”
He added that by 2004, he had realised the relationship was “not entirely healthy”, saying Fletcher exerted “long-term control” over him and that he felt unable to make “any major decision” without Fletcher’s approval, us boys were scared of him
After the verdicts, Judge Plaschkes imposed an absolute discharge, telling the court that the “disposals available to the court are limited” because of Fletcher’s health.
“The court’s hands are tied,” Judge Plaschkes said. “The only disposal that I can impose, and do impose on each of these counts, is an absolute discharge.”
‘Criminal and spiritual malfeasances’
The judge added: “It’s important for victims of sexual abuse to be heard. The jury has made their findings and were satisfied so that they were sure Mr Fletcher indecently assaulted him and other boys without his consent.”
Responding to the verdict, one of Fletcher’s victims, who spoke out when The Telegraph first unmasked him as an abuser in 2019, said: “I am thankful for the court’s verdict, but it grieves me that justice for many has been denied or delayed by church leaders who insisted there was ‘nothing criminal’ about Fletcher’s actions – when they could have done more to expose both his criminal and spiritual malfeasances.”
Lee Furney, another of Fletcher’s victims, says the guilty verdict is a ‘quiet kind of justice’ – KEN BANDA