US Bases in Iraq by the number

Opening three US military bases

Sulaimaniyah, Erbil, Duhok, Kurdistan region (Iraq)

Although it is expected that today responsibility for security will be handed over to the Kurdistan authorities, exclusive military sources have told Hawlati that the US forces intend to open three huge US military bases in the Erbil, Duhok, and Sulaimaniyah areas. Meanwhile, senior peshmerga forces' officials expressed their pleasure at such a move.

The three bases will be located in Qaradagh (south of Sulaimaniyah), Zakho area (north of Duhok), while the third one will be based near Erbil. There is also a possibility that the Incirlik base in Turkey, opened in 1992, will be transferred to the Kurdistan Region, which is heralded as an important achievement by Kurdistan regional government military officials who said they would welcome such requests from the coalition forces.

However, some officials said the issue was not mentioned and thought to be a remote possibility.

A few months ago, US infantry and air force surveyed villages near Qaradagh administrative sub-district for a day, throughout which they neither allowed the locals to approach them nor allowed local officials to visit them.


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US Bases in Iraq by the number


There may be a cooling spell between the US and Iran for Iraq does not mean an easing of the cold war between Tehran and Washington, a war which on the American side involves its GME allies like Turkey and the Sunni Arab world including the 6+2+1. A new turn in this is coming from Iraqi Kurdistan, which has offered the US to base its forces in its territory for AS LONG as Washington wishes, and the Baghdad government is said to back the Kurdish proposal.

The main forces behind this idea are Kurdistan President Mas'oud Barzani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd. Talabani had made the proposal to President Bush during his recent visit to the White House. The idea was welcomed on July 21 by Obama who was then on a visit to Baghdad. Gulf News on July 23 reported its source as saying Obama believed the presence of US combat forces in Kurdistan did not pose any real danger to the lives of American troops and therefore it would be appropriate to redeploy these troops there in the future. Gulf News said the US troops would be based there PERMANENTLY".

There are no major military airports or airbase installations in any of the three provinces in Kurdistan. It may take two to three years to have the required bases to be built, as well as to clear US forces from Iraqi cities.

Gulf News quoted Jabar al-Yawer, spokesman for the Protection Forces of the Kurdistan Region, as saying: "A permanent US military presence in...Kurdistan...is welcome and is necessary to defend Iraq from internal and external risks and is important to protect the region, but this presence must be within an Iraqi-Kurd-American agreement". It quoted 'Emad al-Hamadani, an Iraqi army officer, as saying: "Permanent US forces remain in the al-Hurria Air Base in the province of Kirkuk and the al-Gizlani Air Base in Mosul", close to Kurdistan.

However, Hamadani said: "this will not be a solution because such a permanent presence in those cities is fuelling the armed [Neo-Salafi/Ba'thist] resistance. I therefore believe that the relocation of US forces inside the [the Kurdish] region is the solution". Gulf News added: "While US and Kurdish sources denied any intention of building a US air base near the town of Halabja in the governorate of Sulaymaniya, near Iran, some independent Kurdish sources said if the US decides to establish a permanent presence in the Kurdistan Region they will certainly be closer to the Iraqi-Iranian border".

Gulf News quoted analyst 'Abdul-Razzaq al-Sa'di as saying: "Kurdish leaders are among the most prominent US allies in Iraq and the region, and with this permanent US presence not one neighbouring country would dare to threaten the sovereignty of the region and its federal experience, and the Kurdish population will not take up arms against the [American] presence if this happens, because much of them have a message of thanks and gratitude for the Americans".

Yet an APS source in Baghdad on July 26 said the US would insist on maintaining most of its main bases in Iraq, most of which being in the Sunni Arab Triangle. These include the BALAD facility, a huge air base in the north-eastern province of Diyala which borders with Iran. Many Sunni Arab politicians of the Iraqi Accordance Front (AIF) - the largest Sunni Arab bloc in parliament - favour keeping these bases under US control.

The US will have Bases in Iraq for the next 99 years. The deal is signed. We just move our troops out of the cities and the big Oil Corporations hire 100,000 private mercenaries to patrol the Oilfields and Pipelines. We also keep the big Base out on the Jordanian border next to Syria so we can land armored Divisions and Infantry Brigades in case the mexican democracy in Iraq ever gets in trouble. Plus we sell everything Iraq uses in their military and that's a whole lot of money sent back to Uncle Sam year after year. It pays for the Bases and the CIA too.