ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq’s parliamentary security and defense committee said Monday that it will host senior security officials to discuss reports of alleged “foreign military breaches and activities” in border areas between Karbala and Anbar provinces.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter including US officials, on Saturday reported that Israel had established a temporary secret base in western Iraq’s Najaf desert with US approval during the recent war with Iran.

The report said the base supported Israeli air operations against Iran and was nearly discovered by Iraqi forces in March, leading to clashes that killed one Iraqi serviceman and wounded two others.

In addition to hosting the security authorities, the committee has recommended including funding for air defense systems in the 2026 budget as part of efforts to strengthen Iraq’s defensive capabilities and protect its airspace, according to a report from the state-run al-Sabah on Monday.

Lawmakers said they also plan to host the commander of Iraq’s Air Defense Command to discuss technical needs and ways to enhance defense capabilities.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Security Media Cell denied reports claiming that an airdrop operation had taken place in the Karbala desert east of Nukhayb and Najaf, stating that the circulating information was inaccurate.

Abu Turab al-Tamimi, a senior Badr Organization official, described the Wall Street Journal report as a “serious security scandal.”

Iraq’s Security Media Cell said subsequent search operations in April and May found no presence of unauthorized forces in the area, while AFP cited two Iraqi security officials as confirming that Israeli forces had used a temporary base at an abandoned airstrip in the desert during the conflict.

Throughout the Iran-Israel war, both the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Region Government (KRG) repeatedly stressed that Iraq was not part of the conflict and rejected the use of Iraqi territory or airspace by regional actors to carry out attacks.

The Iraqi government does not maintain any official relations with nor indeed recognize the Israeli state.

In May 2022, the Iraqi parliament passed a law to criminalize the normalization of ties with Israel with majority vote, with the penalties ranging up to life imprisonment or the death penalty.