US troop presence in Iraq to be sliced
The U.S. is reducing its military forces in Iraq from 5,200 to 3,000, the top commander in the Middle East said Wednesday.
The move is in keeping with President Donald Trump’s pledge to cut the number of U.S. military personnel deployed overseas.
“This reduced footprint allows us to continue advising and assisting our Iraqi partners in rooting out the final remnants of ISIS in Iraq and ensuring its enduring defeat,” Gen. Kenneth F. Mckenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, said in a speech in Baghdad.
Mckenzie said the decision was made because the U.S. had “confidence in the Iraqi Security Forces’ increased ability to operate independently.”
Last month, he signaled a troop-level adjustment in Iraq might be made amid indications Iraq’s military had made improvements in its ability combat Islamic State group fighters.
U.S. forces invaded Iraq in 2003, vowing to destroy Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction and end the brutal dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein. No such weapons were found, and Hussein was later captured, put on trial and executed by Iraq. U.S. forces withdrew from the country in 2011 but returned in 2014 after Islamic State group militants overran large parts of the nation, along with neighboring Syria.
Mckenzie said the U.S. troop presence in Iraq will be reduced in September. Trump is likely to tout the withdrawal as progress made toward his 2016 election campaign promise to disentangle Americans from “endless wars” abroad.
Trump also reduced the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 8,600 as part of a Taliban peace deal. He has pledged to further reduce the U.S. troop presence there to less than 5,000 by November. About 500 U.S. troops remain in Syria, where they are confronting the Islamic State group, after Trump ordered but did not see through a total U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria during Turkey’s invasion last year.
“I think the administration is convinced that if you take the level of U.S. troops in Iraq to zero, you risk the return of ISIS,” said Lt. Gen. Tom Spoehr, a defense expert at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
The decision comes as Trump has faced backlash over a report in The Atlantic magazine claiming he made disparaging remarks about U.S. war dead.
Trump aides have faulted the Obama administration for having pulled out of Iraq too soon in 2011 but say the time is now right.
Tensions spiked between the U.S. and Iraq in January after a U.S. drone strike near the Baghdad airport killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-muhandis. Angry Iraqi lawmakers passed a nonbinding resolution to oust all U.s.-led coalition forces.
In response to the Soleimani killing, Iran on Jan. 8 launched a ballistic missile attack on al-asad air base in Iraq, which resulted in traumatic brain injuries to more than 100 American troops. Two months later, U.S. fighter jets struck five sites in retaliation, targeting Iranian-backed Shiite militia members believed responsible for the January rocket attack.
Contributing: Associated Press