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: 4253
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.

This is what it all comes down to now today. There is amazing wealth to tap which would benefit every Iraqi. However, they still want to kill each other.

And quite a few in the Iraqi Parliament who are quite uncomfortable the Quds seem to be overstaying their visit.

Even Sadr is giving signals of “thanks for all that help when the American devils were in charge, but we got it now.”

I haven't seen any recent reporting on Iran trying to colonize Syria but I recall reporting on it. They recruited fighters for Syria, promising a plot of land (in Syria) to those who would fight to defeat ISIS there. There were earlier reports that Iran was being rather forceful about trying to convert the sizable Alawite population in Syria to Shi'a. Alawites are, as you probably know, sort of not accepted to Shi'a and Sunni and some question whether they are even Muslim. So, maybe Alawites are considered heretic by Sunni and Shi'a, kind of like how, say, Mormons used to be regarded by both Catholics and Protestants here in America. Anyway, that's how I try to remember Who's Who in the region. Alawites are sizable and numerous in Syria but their beliefs are not widely accepted as being mainstream Islam.

Maybe America should start copying this tactic. "Sign up for the Army and go fight in Afghanistan. When you win our crusade for peace in Afghanistan, you'll get 40 acres of Afghanistan and ten goats. We promise!".

I read that Assad and his Russian allies were trying to curb the attempt to convert the Alawites to Shi'a and to colonize areas of Syria as they were reconquered from ISIS. I've never seen followups on how successful they have been. I just assumed the Russians know how to handle Iran but those Persians are notoriously difficult to deal with. But that's been a year or more and I'm still wondering how many Iranian colonists ended up taking slices of newly liberated ISIS territory for themselves as private Iranian enclaves. What a nice target those would make for Mossad!

So many stories from the region, you can't get very complete reporting on. It's very hard to get informed and stay informed. I don't think the Brit papers do much better than ours and the EU media is even worse than our own.