Iraq's parliament will summon senior security officials to investigate claims that Israel operated a secret military base in the country during the recent war on Iran , according to an Iraqi official who spoke to The New Arab .
According to the official, parliament will summon the defence and interior ministers, alongside security commanders involved in field operations, after the Wall Street Journal claimed Israel had established a covert military site in Iraq’s western desert near the Saudi border.
The report alleged the base, located in the Nukhayb desert between Najaf and Anbar provinces, was used to support Israeli military operations during the US-Israeli war on Iran and hosted Israeli special forces and search-and-rescue units.
"Parliament will summon the defence and interior ministers and security leaders connected to the field situation to discuss the issue," an Iraqi official within parliament’s leadership told The New Arab .
According to the Wall Street Journal , Israel established the facility with US knowledge and used it as a logistical support hub for the Israeli air force. The newspaper also alleged Israeli aircraft carried out strikes against Iraqi forces that approached the site in March.
Iraqi authorities had allegedly previously believed the unidentified force operating in the area was American and functioning under the umbrella of the international coalition.
The Iraqi official said that the Joint Operations Command had confirmed an attack took place on 4 March 2026 against an Iraqi army force in the Nukhayb desert near the Saudi border after it approached a site hosting an "unknown force".
The official said initial assessments suggested the force was American and linked the incident to a broader series of attacks targeting the Popular Mobilisation Forces, Iraqi army units and border guards.
Another Iraqi security official told The New Arab that the government would issue clarifications later on Sunday, but stressed that the site mentioned in the report was now "clean", indicating no forces remained there.
The Wall Street Journal said the secret base nearly came to light after a shepherd reportedly alerted Iraqi authorities to suspicious military activity, including helicopter landings and armed men in the area. Iraqi forces dispatched to investigate allegedly came under heavy fire and withdrew.
At the time, Baghdad condemned the attack, which killed one Iraqi soldier and wounded two others, without publicly identifying the perpetrators.
According to an Iraqi military statement issued after the incident, a force from Karbala Operations Command came under "aerial bombardment and gunfire" while carrying out a search mission in the desert area linking Karbala and Najaf provinces.
The statement said one soldier was killed and two others injured. Iraqi authorities later announced the formation of a high-level investigative committee into the incident.
Iraqi MP Raed al-Maliki accused Washington of enabling Israeli operations inside Iraq.
"The United States handed Iraqi airspace to the entity [Israel] during the war and ordered the radars to be shut down," he wrote in a Facebook post.
"It has now become clear that Iraqi territory was also used to establish a secret intelligence centre or base for the entity."
He described the allegations as "a major breach for which all national intelligence and security bodies must be held accountable".
The Iraqi government has yet to officially comment on the Wall Street Journal report.