After restricting military aviation .. Is Iraq able to protect its airspace?

Adel Fakher - Baghdad

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi's decision to restrict military aviation approvals to him or his delegates opened a debate on the ability of Iraq's air defenses to do so, amid security experts' assertion that the Iraqi army does not have effective defense systems to counter any penetration of its airspace.

The US-led international coalition in Iraq was quick to announce on Saturday its compliance with the Iraqi prime minister's decision.

The coalition said in a statement that "senior leaders of him met with officials of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense to discuss guidance on the movement of the coalition, and that as a guest within the sovereign limits of Iraq complies with all laws and directives of the government of this country."

The Hashd also announced its support for Abdul Mahdi's decision to ban US airplanes from flying in Iraqi airspace, considering it an important step towards full sovereignty, according to a tweet on the Secretary-General of the Brigades, "Sayed Martyrs" of the crowd Abu Alaa Wali.

Bahaa al-Araji, a former deputy prime minister, said in a tweet on his Twitter account: "After canceling all flight approvals in Iraqi airspace, we have the right to ask: Does this mean that spy planes and drones were getting government approvals? There are approvals.

Development of defenses
This comes at a time of uncertainty surrounding the explosion that took place in the Hawks camp of the Popular Mobilization and Federal Police south of Baghdad on August 13, the third of its kind in less than two months, while observers are likely to unknown drones or Israeli penetration of Iraqi airspace And bombing it.

Israeli writer and researcher Eddie Cohen hinted that it was the Israeli warplanes that bombed the Falcons camp. "Baghdad has been rationally cleared before Iranian ballistic missiles," he said in a tweet.

The most likely Iraqi security analyst Ahmed Sharifi health, and told Al Jazeera Net that "the data indicate that the bombing of the Popular Mobilization Camps was carried out by Israeli aircraft and the cooperation and support of the United States." He pointed out that Iraq is absolutely unable to confront the unknown planes that penetrate its airspace because of what he described as corruption and mismanagement, and because it needs conscious leaders to design Iraq strategies of comprehensive deterrence to meet the challenges, including air sovereignty, and this is not possible because of the existence of quotas in the political system. .

For his part, Iraqi security expert Hisham al-Hashemi told Al Jazeera Net that "Iraq does not have the deterrent power of the modern air defense system that can give to the decision of Abdul-Mahdi sovereignty over the air, and therefore this decision is like a political declaration."

Hashemi pointed out that "if Israel is the implementation of the bombing, it can do so from outside the Iraqi airspace, because it has a lot of technology and technologies, such as F-35 aircraft, which can bypass the systems of Iraqi radars limited range," saying that "this decision will not give Iraq Iraq is indispensable to the weapon of the international coalition, of which the United States constitutes a large percentage, which may only condemn the Israeli bombing and not stand against it. "

It is noteworthy that the recent explosion in the Popular Mobilization Camp is the third in two months, which is restrained against an unknown, or attributed by military leaders to an electrical contact or high temperatures.