A recreational hunting trip in a remote desert area between Karbala and Najaf in southern Iraq ended, according to Iraqi security and intelligence sources, with the discovery of a foreign force that Iraqi intelligence agencies and air surveillance systems had failed to detect.
Subsequent Iraqi intelligence assessments concluded that the force was Israeli and that it had carried out a limited military operation in one of the country’s most exposed and difficult-to-monitor desert regions.
On March 3, 2026, a 25-year-old Iraqi man identified as “Thani” went rabbit hunting with his brother in the Shinana desert, south of the town of al-Nukhaib. According to testimony later provided to Iraqi authorities, the trip appeared routine at first until the brothers noticed a drone flying at low altitude over a vast stretch of desert that is not subject to permanent surveillance.
Alhurra reviewed part of the young man’s testimony and spoke with Iraqi security, military, and intelligence sources who said his account opened a new line of investigation into what occurred in the area during the first days of March.
Initial reports had suggested that a shepherd first discovered the presence of the foreign force. But new information obtained by Alhurra indicates that the first security alert actually came from the two brothers after their hunting trip.
According to Thani’s testimony, the drone followed them for some time across the desert. An Iraqi intelligence official described the area to Alhurra as “a security vacuum,” adding that it is sometimes used as an unofficial transit corridor.
The official said the region has witnessed “undeclared aerial activity” in recent years because of its geography, vastness, and links to old smuggling routes.
As the brothers ventured deeper into the desert pursuing rabbits, they approached a site where an uncovered vehicle appeared heading toward them. Thani said several armed men disembarked from the vehicle wearing military uniforms. One of them spoke Arabic in a non-Iraqi dialect before questioning the brothers about why they were in the area.
Security testimonies reviewed by Iraqi authorities indicate that the exchange was brief and direct. The armed men ordered the brothers to leave immediately and warned them not to return or approach the site again.
The brothers complied and left. An intelligence source told Alhurra that the movement pattern described by the young man was “unusual compared to known Iraqi patrols operating in the area.”
In subsequent testimony, Thani said he also observed aircraft at close range that he believed were military transport planes.
After returning from the desert, the brothers went to a nearby security post and filed an official report detailing what they had seen. According to the sources, the testimony was documented and forwarded to the relevant authorities under standard procedures for reports involving suspicious activity in desert regions.
Iraqi security forces, however, did not move immediately.
Two days later, on March 5, an Iraqi security unit moved toward the reported location to verify the claims. As the force approached a specific area inside the desert, it came under direct fire, triggering a limited clash before Iraqi troops repositioned and withdrew.
One Iraqi soldier was killed and several others wounded.
An Iraqi army source told Alhurra that the opposing force appeared to maneuver through the open desert “with prior knowledge of the terrain,” adding that it was impossible during the confrontation to determine the identity of the group that opened fire.
At the time, Iraqi authorities attempted to downplay the incident or deny parts of it, but information spread quickly and Iraqi politicians began speaking publicly about what they described as a strange and unprecedented event.
On March 6, one day after the clash, a family in al-Nukhaib reported the killing of a 27-year-old shepherd named Awad Hadi in an area close to the site where Thani said he had encountered the armed force.
Hadi, who lived and traveled through the desert as a shepherd, was likely killed by Israeli forces operating in the area, according to three Iraqi federal and local security sources interviewed by Alhurra.
A police report said the victim had been driving a civilian vehicle when he came under fire and was killed. His vehicle was completely burned.
An Iraqi army officer stationed in the Najaf desert told Alhurra that the available evidence supports the assessment of the three security sources that Hadi was killed by the Israeli force operating there.
Following the incident, Iraq’s Security Media Cell issued a brief statement saying that a unit from the Karbala Operations Command had come under “aerial bombardment and gunfire” while conducting a search mission in the desert area linking Karbala and Najaf provinces, resulting in the death of one serviceman.
The statement did not identify the party responsible for the attack.
But Iraqi security officials who previously spoke to Alhurra said evidence gathered by Iraqi agencies pointed to the presence of an Israeli force in the area during that period. Thani’s testimony and the subsequent security report add a new layer to a story that has remained shrouded in secrecy and conflicting accounts.
In a recent interview with Alhurra, Iraqi National Security Adviser Qassem al-Araji said that “Iraqi airspace is violated,” an apparent acknowledgment of Baghdad’s inability to fully control aerial movements over its territory, particularly in remote desert regions.
Since the defeat of ISIS in 2017, large parts of Iraq’s western desert have become what a former Iraqi officer described to Alhurra as “gray zones” — vast, sparsely populated areas where old smuggling routes intersect with unofficial transit corridors, making surveillance difficult even under normal circumstances.
With the 40-day war between Iran on one side and the United States and Israel on the other, these areas gained increasing intelligence significance. Security officials said the desert stretching between Anbar, Karbala, and Najaf could serve as transit routes or undeclared operational zones for regional and foreign actors.
At the time, Karbala lawmaker Zuhair al-Fatlawi said a military force had carried out a “rapid airborne landing operation” roughly 40 kilometers from al-Nukhaib, likely entering from the Syrian border using between four and seven helicopters, alongside the deployment of Humvee vehicles at the site.
The intelligence source interviewed by Alhurra said the force likely withdrew less than 48 hours after the killing of Awad Hadi. Iraqi security forces later returned to survey the area about two weeks afterward but found no clear trace of the force reported by the two brothers.
Another Iraqi security source told Alhurra that “near-certain intelligence indicates it was an Israeli force,” adding that the unit had installed “jamming and targeting radar systems to track drones and missiles launched from Iraq and Iran.”
Alhurra had previously revealed aspects of the story. Israeli military sources declined at the time to comment on questions sent by Alhurra regarding whether Israel had conducted special operations in the area.
As Iraqi media later circulated reports that Israeli forces had established one or two bases in Iraq’s desert, an Iraqi official said the equipment deployed there consisted of “jamming and targeting radar systems.”
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
Mustafa Saadoon
Mustafa Saadoon is an Iraqi journalist who has worked for several international and Arab media organizations. He covers politics and human rights.
