PENTAGON CHIEF VISITS IRAQ
: The top Pentagon official arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday to consult with American military commanders and Iraqi government leaders on the future US troop presence in Iraq.
Pat Shanahan, the acting secretary defence, said before his unannounced trip that he wanted to hear first-hand about the state of Iraq’s fight against remnants of the Islamic State group. On Sunday, Shanahan had declined to say whether he would propose that additional US special operations troops be brought to Iraq to, in effect, compensate for a pullout from Syria to begin within weeks.
The US has about 5,200 troops in Iraq to train and advise its security forces, 16 years after the US invaded to topple Saddam Hussein.
President Donald Trump upset Iraqis by saying earlier this month that US forces should use their Iraqi positions to keep an eye on neighbouring Iran. That is not the stated US mission in Iraq, and Iraqi officials have said Trump’s proposal would violate the Iraqi constitution. Trump also has angered Iraqi politicians by arguing that he would keep US troops in Iraq and use the country as a base from which to strike extremists in Syria if necessary, after the 2,000 troops now in Syria depart in coming weeks.
On Monday, Shanahan was in Afghanistan, where he met with US troops and President Ashraf Ghani amid a US push for peace talks with the Taliban. Trump has indicated he would like to get US troops out of Afghanistan, but Shanahan said he has no orders for a troop drawdown. He said the US wants to ensure that Afghanistan is never used as a safe haven for terrorists.
“The leaders discussed a broad range of defence issues, including ...of achieving a political settlement to the war that ensures Afghanistan is never again used as a safe haven from which terrorists can plan and launch terrorist attacks against the United States, our interests, and our allies,” said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Robertson.