A handout picture released by the US Central Command on March 17, 2020, shows US officials touring the base in Qaim as troops prepare for redeployment.Photo: AFP/US CENTCOM
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – US commitments in Iraq remain the same despite the transfer of a key military base to Iraqi security forces last week, US-led coalition spokesperson Colonel Myles B. Caggins III told Rudaw on Thursday.
“The coalition will continue to be partnered with Iraqi Security Forces. We will see that partnership in the future from fewer locations with fewer people, but our commitment is the same,” he said on Thursday night, adding that the transfer occurred due to the success of Iraqi forces in the ongoing fight against Islamic State (ISIS).
The handover of al-Qaim base, in Anbar province, marked the “first step of a US troop withdrawal from Iraq,” an Iraqi military official told Rudaw on Thursday.
Al-Qaim has been used by coalition troops since 2017 to train and advise Iraqi forces to combat the Islamic State group (ISIS).
Calls for foreign troops to withdraw from Iraq spiked after the US assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in January, leading to a non-binding parliamentary resolution requesting troops to return home.
A series of attacks on US troops in Iraq followed in the months after Soleimani’s killing, causing the US to reposition troops around Iraq and further afield.
However, Caggins insists the US will continue to work with Iraqi forces despite their reduced numbers, citing ongoing cooperation in light of the March 11 rocket attack on Taji military base, which killed two Americans and one Briton.
“We do not know who conducted the attacks on Taji military base. But our partners here..are sharing information as they hunt for the terrorists. The Iraqis assured the American leadership that they will take action.”
US forces were invited back to Iraq in 2014 by the Iraqi government in order to oust ISIS, which had seized swathes of territory across Iraq and Syria. There are roughly 5,000 US troops stationed in Iraq advising and assisting Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the fight against ISIS remnants.
Troops previously stationed at al-Qaim will be relocated across Iraq, Syria and the US, according to the spokesperson. A number of troops will be sent to Syria’s Deiz ez-Zor province- where ISIS was defeated exactly a year ago.
However, the terror group is still active, Caggins warned.
“ISIS is not down and out. The threat still remains in some areas along the mountains, in Makhmour and Hamran, as well as some desert areas in Anbar,” he told Rudaw.
“ISIS cannot hold physical territory because of the success of the Peshmerga, and the Iraqi security forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces. We are leaving al-Qaim because Iraqi security forces have proven to be effective in protecting that region,” he added.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment