Acting Pentagon chief makes surprise Baghdad visit to conduct troop talks

Acting Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan made an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Tuesday for talks on the sensitive issue of a continued US troop presence after Washington withdraws from neighboring Syria.

Shanahan is keen to reassure Iraqi leaders after US President Donald Trump angered many by saying he wanted to maintain some troops at the Al-Asad airbase to keep an eye on Iran.

The acting defense secretary, who flew in from Afghanistan on his first foreign tour since taking office last month, held talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi and top military advisers, as well as Lieutenant General Paul LaCamera, the commander of antiIslamic State coalition forces.

His meeting with Iraq’s premier had “a very good energy,” Shanahan told the press after arriving in Brussels where he is set to attend a NATO summit.

“I made very clear that we recognize their sovereignty, their focus on independence and that we are there at the invitation of the government,” he added.

Asked whether they had touched on the possibility of US troops in Iraq deploying across the border into Syria for operations against the Islamic State group, Shanahan said, “It just did not come up.”

The two spoke about Iran “indirectly... in the context of Iraq’s independence,” he said, adding that Abdul-Mahdi had stressed the need for Baghdad to maintain good relations with both its neighbors and the US.

A senior Pentagon official had earlier told journalists traveling with Shanahan that Washington’s “main partnership and military activity in Iraq is the de-ISIS [Islamic State] mission.”

Washington was also pressing its allies to repatriate their nationals captured and taken prisoner during the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the official said.

“We think coalition members need to take responsibility for their citizens who are fighters. It’s been a message we’ve delivered time and time again. And we are seeing hopeful progress,” he said.