Coalition hands over Taji ammunition facility to Iraqi forces

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — US-led coalition troops transferred control of an ammunition supply point inside Taji military base in northern Baghdad to Iraqi security forces (ISF) on Sunday, according to a coalition spokesperson.

“The Coalition transferred approximately 50 ammunition storage bunkers, and associated secure facilities, to full Iraqi control,” read a statement from Col.Myles B Caggins III.

The statement also revealed that the supply point is the “primary storage facility” for the anti-Islamic State (ISIS) mission in Iraq.

“In 2020, more than $11 million of ammunition inside the ASP was divested to the ISF as part of the Coalition’s Counter-ISIS Train and Equipment Fund,” the statement added.

Caggins confirmed that the coalition maintains a “small presence” at the base. 

Baghdad invited the US-led international coalition to intervene in Iraq in 2014 as ISIS seized control of vast areas of northern Iraq and neighbouring Syria. Some 7,500 foreign troops formed part of the 81-country coalition; over 5,000 of them were American.

But with ISIS territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017, US military presence in the country has met increasing opposition, particularly from Iran-backed militias and political parties.

Bases hosting US military personnel have come under repeated rocket attack by militias closely linked to Tehran.

In recent months, the coalition has withdrawn from several Iraqi bases and repositioned troops after successes in the campaign to defeat ISIS and to protect personnel amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The last base to be transferred to the ISF by the US-led coalition was Besmaya military base, southwest of Baghdad, last month.