LF: Iraq Closes Airspace Even To US Coalition Flights After Suspected Israeli Raid

Title: Iraq Closes Airspace Even To US Coalition Flights After Suspected Israeli Raid
Source: Zero Hedge
URL Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019 ... lights-after-suspected-israeli
Published: Aug 17, 2019
Author: Tyler Durden
Post Date: 2019-08-18 09:11:26 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 4220
Comments: 42

In what is a severely under reported but perhaps the most alarming development out of the Middle East this week, Iraq's government has said it's ready to down any aircraft violating its airspace amid a blanket ban on 'unauthorized' flights not specifically approved by the prime minister's office. Military Times reported the day after Iraq closed its airspace on Thursday:

U.S. military officials in Iraq will now seek out Iraqi approval before launching any air operations, a move made a day after that nation’s prime minister announced a ban of unauthorized flights, including those involving coalition forces fighting ISIS.

Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi called for an end to all “unauthorized flights” including US drones, spy planes, jets, or helicopters on Thursday. The directive demanded that all aerial vehicles comply with Iraqi law and operations must be under Iraqi government authorization.

Monday's blast in southwest Baghdad, via the AP.

The US Coalition on Friday issued a statement saying that it is ready to comply with the order:

The drastic Baghdad decision came after on Monday a massive blast ripped through a neighborhood in the city, which Iraqi officials believe was the result of an Israeli strike on a pro-Iranian militia ammunition depot.

The resulting fire had raged throughout the day not far from the 'Green Zone' and sent mortars and exploding munitions across the city, resulting in the death of at least one civilian and wounding of nearly 40 others, many of them children. The weapons base reportedly belonged to the pro-Iran Kataib Sayyid Al-Shuhada militia, and an estimated $110 million worth of munitions were wiped out.

“The prime minister ordered to revoke all special flight permits in Iraqi airspace for reconnaissance aircraft, reconnaissance aircraft with weapons, fighters, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles of all kinds available to the Iraqi and non-Iraqi sides”, an official Iraq government statement said after an Iraqi National Security Council meeting this week.

“All authorities are required to comply with this order. Any flights that violate this regulation will be considered an aggression, which our air defense will immediately respond to,” the statement added.

While there's been no official government statement out of Baghdad confirming an Israeli jet or drone was behind the attack amid an ongoing investigation, Iraqi militia commanders and military leaders were quick to name Israel, and not for the first time (prior recent 'mystery' explosions at Iran-backed militia bases have also been blamed on Israeli). “We believe that the US and Israel were behind these explosions,” one Shiite commander told Arab News.

Indeed even Israeli media has been source of widespread speculation that Israeli planes have been conducting raids in Iraqi airspace of late. All of this also comes as Iraq's parliament has increasingly voiced anger and frustration at the continued US troop presence even after the Islamic State has been defeated.

They should not be hosting an Iranian munitions dump. Iran has no strategic interest in Iraq to even justify it. No one wants to see Iraq turn into an Iranian missile base like Lebanon or Syria.

I see the Iraqi objection based on their sovereignty. But hosting that missile storage alone had already compromised their sovereignty.

Who's to say? Certainly Iran wouldn't be storing munitions in Iraq without Iraq's approval.

It certainly sounds like Iraq is switching sides from the coalition which delivered it from ISIS and is now orienting toward Iran.

Iraq is the most vulnerable state to Iranian appeals. It is a majority Shi'a country. And so is Iran. Their enemies are all the Sunni Arab states (except Qatar).

If it comes to war, missile stockpiles will be targeted early. Also, Israel is well-known for striking missiles from Iran, having done so repeatedly. Israel bombed Syria's shake-and-bake nuclear reactor that was apparently supplied as a joint project between North Korea and Iran. Israel also bombed Saddam's Osirik reactor.

Iraq should consider what may happen if they continue to aid Iran against Israel. Israel has demonstrated many times an expertise in making their enemies regret their choice to attack or threaten Israel.

You got it completely wrong. The coalition delivered Iraq from the secular Sunni government and allowed Shia pro-Iranian majority to take over.

Well...Iraq was governed by led by Saddam and his gang of ruthless Sunni pols and cronies from Iraq's Sunni regions, especially the area where Saddam came from. They were supported by the Christian and Sunni minority and some of the Kurds (at least until Saddam gassed some supposedly disloyal Kurds).

And we've allowed the Saudis and Qataris to do the same thing to Syria, so the French and Brits could get natural gas pipelines into the EU. Which would end the Russian natural gas monopoly in the EU and establish a competitive market and much lower energy costs to the EU.

Syria is different from Iraq in that it was run by a minority of Alawite leadership with support from Shi'a and Christian minorities, all against a Sunni majority.

Being outside the region and having little grounding toward Mideast culture and religions, it's hard to remember all the details and cross-currents of all the former colonies of the British empire that we have to deal with.

Yes and not. Now the Shia majority is free to govern their country. The time of forced secularism and anti-Iranian policy ended.

It is like thinking that the Bible Belt is Catholic, Utah is inhabited by the Quakers and New England is Shinto. All those stupid details are irrelevant and annoying mumbo jumbo. Good humanitarian bombing will make it into a new Switzerland.

Your remarks earlier on ISIS were accurate in that they were Sunni. They were also elements of Saddam's former military/security/intel agencies. Just as Germany had cause to worry about dispossessed members of the former military after WW I reduced the size of the German army and therefore left a lot of entitled military families at loose ends and helped open the doors to the Nazi element, the end of Saddam left his military/intel/security forces without a job or anywhere to go. And suddenly you have ISIS establishing itself out in the desert regions fighting Assad's forces to break off the eastern part of Syria and moving north-by-northeast inside of Iraq to try to grab and hold the Kirkuk oil fields. Add a bold dash of religious fundamentalism (smashing up ancient artifacts and sites) and some executions and you have a wannabe caliphate, trying to attract Muslim recruits worldwide. "It's the end of the world as we know it and you can enjoy the end in style. Come get your 72 virgins." Of course, they mostly attracted silly unprepared Westerners and a bunch of psychopaths from all over the world. There are psychopaths in every society including Muslims. Islam does tend to reward psychopaths far more than Western societies do.