Washington and Baghdad announce talks over withdrawal of US-led anti-ISIS force
Talks over the withdrawal of the US-led anti-ISIS military coalition in Iraq are set to begin, Washington and Baghdad have said.
Both governments announced on Thursday that the US-Iraq Higher Military Commission would be meeting “in the coming days” to discuss the “transition to an enduring bilateral security partnership between Iraq and the United States”.
US combat forces left Iraq in 2011 following the 2003 invasion, but thousands were sent back in 2014 to help Baghdad defeat ISIS. The sustained US presence, as well as a series of strikes against Iran-backed militias in Iraq, has led to increasing calls for the Americans to leave again.
This month, Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani said the government was beginning the process of removing the US-led coalition.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said discussions would take place as part of a higher military commission that was agreed upon last year to discuss the “transition to an enduring bilateral security partnership between Iraq and the United States”. Iraq’s Foreign Ministry put out a similar statement.
But a senior western diplomat, whose country is a major contributor to the anti-ISIS coalition, told The National that Iraqi forces are not yet ready to suppress the extremist group without more training.
The diplomat said his country would accept the end of the mission and a transition to bilateral security arrangements, but cautioned against making decisions too quickly.
“If the Iraqis insist on finishing the coalition, we will, of course, accept that and move to bilateral co-operation. But there are real dangers to Iraq’s security if that happens too quickly,” said the diplomat. “Western countries want to complete their training of the Iraqi security forces. They do not want to see a repeat of the mistakes of 2010-2014.
“The Iraqi army is stronger than it was but still lacks certain skills and is heavily dependent on the coalition for intelligence and logistics.”
The US leads a multinational mission of about 3,000 troops. The majority are complemented by a Nato mission to advise and assist Iraqi security forces, including the air force.
Dutch, French, British, Italian, Australian and Canadian
forces have been involved in support, while France also has a security arrangement with Baghdad.
The US-led anti-ISIS coalition was formed in 2014 after several Iraqi Army divisions, comprising tens of thousands of soldiers, collapsed in the face of the extremist group, which took over about a third of the country.
Analysts later identified chronic deficiencies in the Iraqi Army, including rampant corruption, which eroded morale and hastened the collapse of its forces.
Coalition troops resumed training in 2014 and sent supporting air power to strike ISIS, amid an uneasy truce with Iran-backed militias. But since 2017, when ISIS was almost entirely defeated in the battle of Mosul, clashes have escalated between US forces and the militias, which are part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, an official branch of the security services.
The announcement of the talks follows a major escalation between the US and Iranbacked groups, in which one of the militias, Kataib Hezbollah, launched ballistic missiles at Ain Al Asad airbase in western Iraq, where US troops are stationed.
No American personnel were killed – although several were injured, along with one Iraqi – but the US retaliated with air strikes on Kataib Hezbollah and other militias. US troops, stationed with Iraqi and Kurdish forces in two major bases in western Iraq and the northern Kurdish region, as well as a smaller base in Baghdad, have faced about 150 attacks from Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria since October 7, when the Israel-Gaza war began.
The talks come at a time of increased instability in the Middle East, with the conflict in Gaza also having brought about a rise in attacks on Red Sea shipping by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, which are also backed by Tehran.
The attacks by the Houthis have forced several carriers to reroute vessels around southern Africa, and prompted the US and Britain to carry out air strikes on the rebels’ military sites in Yemen.