(Baghdad) The one thing that you can take for granted in the
Middle East is rumours run riot. In fact people have been murdered on the wisp
of a rumour, be it your daughter was seen talking to a man, that UN teams are administering a Polio vaccine makes you ill or even that the Israelis are bombing from afar.
Well the last rumour has spread like wild fire after an Iranian
arms depot went bang the other day. The official Iraq comment on the explosion was that it was due to a fire which started due to the poor husbandry of the arms depot which wasn't helped by the heat of the day.
However this is the Middle East, which is why former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Baha al-Araji is pushing the line of :انفجار هائل بمستودع أسلحة جنوب #بغداد.. وتقارير عراقية تؤكد تبعيته للحشد الشعبي وفرار سكان المنازل القريبة بعد أن طالتهم الشظايا #إرم_نيوز #العراق #Iraq pic.twitter.com/HmKezFQtzY— إرم نيوز (@EremNews) August 12, 2019
“We believe the weapons depot was targeted by an oppressive colonial state on the basis of a treasonous Iraqi act,”
As rumour and rife rule the roost here, the Iraqi PM Abdul-Mahdi
has now called for an end to all
“unauthorized flights,” whether US drones, spy planes, jets, or helicopters,
and insisted that planes that do operate in Iraqi airspace must comply with
Iraqi law and under Iraqi government direction.
The thing is the F35 stealth fighter simply does not have
the legs to fly to Iraq and back in full stealth. Something it would have to do
in which to ensure mission success. But hey rumour and rife.
