France pulls out troops from Iraq
PARIS: France is pulling out its military forces from Iraq as French forces are increasingly called upon to help fight the coronavirus at home.
The chief of staff of the French armed forces said in a statement on Wednesday night that France is suspending its anti-terrorism training operations in Iraq and also bringing home its Iraq-based troops involved in the Us-led coalition against the Daesh militant group.
France has around 200 military personnel working in Iraq either as trainers or in the headquarters of coalition forces in Baghdad.
“In coordination with the Iraqi government, the coalition has decided to adjust its deployments in Iraq and provisionally suspend training activities,” it said in a statement.
France, which has suffered repeated attacks on its soil by Daesh extremists, is maintaining military operations in Kuwait and Qatar, and air force missions over Syria. The announcement came just after French President Emmanuel Macron launched a special military operation to support efforts to treat people infected with the new virus.
France plans to deploy helicopter carriers in its overseas territories, and has transported the sick on military planes and an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean.
The French military also built a field hospital in the eastern city of Mulhouse, located in the region of France hardest-hit by the outbreak.
The UK defence ministry had already announced some of its troops would come home, citing a “reduced requirement for training” Iraqi security forces.
France had almost 26,000 confirmed cases as of Wednesday and the fifth-largest number of virus-related deaths in the world at more than 1,300.
Separately, two Turkish soldiers were killed and two others wounded after a mortar attack by Kurdish militants in northern Iraq’s Haftanin region, the Turkish Defence Ministry said late on Wednesday, adding the attack was retaliated.
In a statement, the ministry said Kurdistan Workers Party ( PKK) militants had mounted a “harassment attack” on Turkish troops. It said “targets identified in the region” were struck and destroyed immediately in retaliation.