U.S. to announce troop drawdown from Iraq
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister is heading to Washington this weekend to demand that President Joe Biden withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq, announcing to Iraqi media that the visit would “put an end to the presence of combat forces.”
U.S. officials say the U.S. is likely to oblige the request from Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, setting a deadline to be announced Monday for the withdrawal of combat forces by the end of the year.
Pentagon and other administration officials say they will achieve this by removing a small but unspecified number of the 2,500 U.S. forces currently stationed in Iraq and by reclassifying on paper the roles of other forces. Al-Kadhimi will have a political trophy to take home to satisfy anti-American factions in Iraq, and the U.S. military presence will remain.
“There will be no U.S. military forces in a combat role by the end of the year,” said a senior U.S. official familiar with ongoing discussions. “We anticipate some force adjustments in line with that commitment.”
What appears to be a set piece of diplomatic theater is the latest effort by al-Kadhimi to tread between the needs and demands of Iraq’s two closest allies, the U.S. and Iran. Pro-Iranian factions have been clamoring for a U.S. departure, while Iraqi officials say they still need the help of U.S. forces.
The Biden administration in turn is grappling with how to operate in a country that since the U.S. invasion 18 years ago has fallen increasingly under the grip of Iranian-backed militias and a corrupt political system that has brought Iraq’s government institutions to the brink of collapse.
Al-Kadhimi’s government, along with many senior Iraqi military officials, quietly favor the roughly 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq staying in their current form. But the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top security and intelligence commander, along with a senior Iraqi security official and
eight others in a U.S. drone strike in 2020, has made the U.S.’ current presence politically impossible and politically undesirable in the U.S.
After the U.S. drone strike, Iraq’s parliament demanded the government expel U.S. forces — a
motion that was nonbinding but sent a strong message to any politician who wanted to stay in power, including the prime minister.
Since the Islamic State group was driven from its last Iraqi stronghold in 2017, U.S. officials have consistently maintained that since there are currently no combat operations authorized in Iraq, there are no combat troops in the country. But they acknowledge a small number of U.S. Special Operations Forces serving as advisers, and trainers occasionally accompany Iraqi counterterrorism forces on combat missions against Islamic State group fighters.
In Washington on Friday, Pentagon officials said they expected the troop levels in Iraq to remain at their current level of about 2,500 and that the role of some U.S. forces would be redefined.
But while giving al-Kadhimi temporary political cover, a reclassification of U.S. forces rather than a drawdown likely will not satisfy the militias and political parties calling for a withdrawal of all troops, Iraqi officials say.
“Changing their name from combat forces to trainers and advisers — we consider it as an attempt at deception,” said Mohammad al-Rubai’e, political spokesperson for Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the biggest Iranian-backed militias, which maintains 16 seats in the Iraqi parliament.