Middle East
Commander of US Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie (centre), presides over a Coalition ceremony transferring authority to Major General John Brennan (right) in Baghdad on September 9, 2021. Photo: handout/CJTF-OIR
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Command of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group (ISIS) was handed over to a lower rank general as the United States formally shifts its mission in Iraq from combat to advise and assist.
“It’s not terribly common that we assign a 2-star to command a CJTF [Combined Joint Task Force] headquarters with so many contributing nations. But with this transition, OIR [Operation Inherent Resolve] is no longer a common task force,” commander of US Central Command, General Kenneth McKenzie, said in a press release on Friday.
“By January 1st, it will have completed its transition from a warfighting headquarters to one focused entirely on advising and assisting our hosts in those areas where we can be most helpful,” he added.
Major General John Brennan replaced Lieutenant General Paul Calvert in a ceremony in Baghdad on Thursday.
The coalition “is ready to take our advisory assistance to the next level with our able partners from the Joint Operating Center - Iraq, the ISF [Iraqi security forces] and SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces] in order to promulgate the enduring defeat of Daesh,” Brennan said.
The 83-member coalition in July 2020 announced its presence in Iraq will shrink as its focus shifts to high-level advisory work. Since then it has taken several steps to make the transition. This year, the US reduced its number of troops in Iraq to 2,500, down from 5,000, a move Washington said was "consistent with Operation Inherent Resolve's transition from major combat operations." Coalition forces have also left a number of Iraqi bases, in an effort to reduce their “footprint” in the country, its spokesperson said last year.
The US-led Global Coalition was formally established in October 2014 after ISIS took control of large swathes of territories in Iraq and Syria.
Forces within Iraq are pressuring the US to withdraw. Sites housing US personnel have frequently been the target of Iran-backed militias. In late July, US President Joe Biden received Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in Washington and announced that the US combat mission will be over by the end of the year.
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