Israel reportedly built combat bases in Iraq; after being detected, an airstrike targeted Iraqi reconnaissance soldiers.

Multiple countries’ media outlets, including the United States and Iraq, reported recently that Israel has established a secret operational base in the desert region of Iraq, which borders Iran, in order to support Israel’s airstrikes on Iran. Iraq became aware of the base in early March, during the initial stage of the Israel–U.S. conflict with Iran, and when troops were sent to scout the area, they were hit by Israeli airstrikes. In a report on the 9th, the U.S. newspaper The Wall Street Journal cited multiple people familiar with the matter, including U.S. government officials, saying that shortly before Israel and the U.S. jointly launched a military operation against Iran on February 28, Israel built the aforementioned secret base in the Iraqi desert and deployed special forces there as a logistics hub for the Israeli Air Force. During the roughly five-week period from the outbreak of hostilities to the temporary ceasefire between the U.S. and Israel, the Israeli Air Force carried out thousands of airstrikes against targets inside Iran. One insider said that the Israeli Air Force special forces deployed at the base had been trained to carry out raids on enemy territory. The base also deployed a search-and-rescue team to conduct emergency rescue flights for pilots if Israeli military aircraft were shot down. (Xinhua)