Iraqi PM eyes U.S. troop withdrawal
If there is no significant announcement on the withdrawal of troops, I fear that the pro-Iran groups may... increase attacks on the US forces
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Weakened by pro-Iran factions at home, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi will meet with US President Joe Biden on Monday to discuss a possible full US troop withdrawal from his country.
The White House talks between the two allies come just a week after a deadly attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, despite Baghdad declaring the Sunni extremists defeated over three years ago.
Kadhemi finds himself backed into a corner by the influence of Iraq's other main ally — neighboring Iran, which has long seen the United States as its arch-nemesis.
Despite shared enmity on the part of the US and Shiite Iran toward a resilient IS, Kadhemi is under intense pressure from pro-Tehran armed factions who demand the withdrawal of 2,500 US troops still deployed in Iraq.
Operating under the Hashed al-Shaabi, a paramilitary network whose tentacles extend deep into the state, these Shiite factions stand accused of carrying out around 50 rocket and drone attacks this year against US interests in Iraq.
"If there is no significant announcement on the withdrawal of troops, I fear that the pro-Iran groups may... increase attacks on the US forces," Iraqi researcher Sajad Jiyad told AFP.
Such concerns are given weight by the leader of one such paramilitary group Asaib Ahl al-Haq, who recently warned that "resistance operations will continue until all American forces have left Iraqi territory."
Most of the US soldiers, deployed in 2014 to lead an international military coalition against IS, left under Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, who hosted Kadhemi at the White House last August.