Monday, 22 February 2021 _Swarms of helicopter gunships and drones are flying over al-Anbar as the US is setting up its second military base in western Iraq near the Syrian border, a report says.
Iraq's al-Maloumah news agency cited an unnamed security source on Monday as saying that the unusual overflights above al-Qa’im District extended as far as the border with Syria.
This is while no security breach has occurred in the area to warrant the overflights, the source said.
According to the agency, the US never notifies Iraqi security forces about its missions and Iraqi authorities are often kept in the dark about their nature and motivations behind them.
The new military base will be the second US facility in al-Anbar after the sprawling Ain al-Assad Airbase.
The new outpost lies close to a hugely strategic area where the Iraqi, Syrian, and Jordanian borders meet.
The US deployed troops to Iraq in 2014 under the pretext of fighting Daesh. Washington and its allies retain their forces in Iraq despite Baghdad having announced the defeat of the Takfiri terrorist group in 2017.
US troops are also based across the border in al-Tanf in Syria, where militants fighting the Syrian government are reportedly trained and armed and used for operations in Iraq and elsewhere.
Over the years, there have been numerous reports about the infiltration of Daesh elements from Syria into Iraq under the protection and logistical assistance of US troops.
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