Pentagon says US received no request to quit Iraq

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States has not received a request from the Iraqi government to withdraw its troops, the Pentagon said on Thursday, contrary to statements out of Baghdad.

“We've received no request from the government of Iraq to withdraw our forces,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda during a press briefing.

The US and Iraq on Thursday announced the start of talks within the framework of a US-Iraq Higher Military Commission (HMC) to discuss the future of the global coalition’s mission against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq.

Iraqi Defense Minister Thabet al-Abassi said the HMC will hold talks with member nations of the coalition in the next few days “to determine the timing of the coalition forces' withdrawal and establish mutually cooperative relationships between Iraq, the United States, and the coalition countries.”

The Pentagon’s Singh said these talks have not included a request from Baghdad to withdraw US forces.

“The HMC meeting is not a negotiation about the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq,” she said. “The HMC, it's a working group to determine what our future looks like together with Iraq in terms of our bilateral relationship.” 

According to Singh, the military commission will “enable the transition to an enduring bilateral security partnership between the US and Iraq.”

“Our Iraqi partners have assured us of their commitment towards working together to shape this future on US military presence and the enduring defeat of ISIS,” she added.

The Iraqi government is under mounting pressure to expel international coalition forces from the country following several deadly American retaliatory strikes on state-linked militia groups accused of conducting rocket and drone attacks on US interests.

Around 100 members of the Iraqi parliament earlier this month signed a petition calling for the issuing of a binding resolution to expel forces of the US-led coalition, labeling the foreign presence a “threat” to Iraqi security. In January 2020, angry over the US killing of Iran’s Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the Iraqi parliament passed a non-binding resolution to expel all foreign forces.

American troops in Iraq and Syria have been the targets of frequent rocket and drone attacks since mid-October by Iraqi militia groups condemning Washington’s support for Israel in its war in the Gaza Strip. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a network of shadow Iraqi militia groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.

Washington has retaliated several times with deadly airstrikes that have drawn strong condemnation from the Iraqi government. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s military spokesperson described them as “unacceptable” and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.

This week, at least one militiaman was killed in American airstrikes on facilities of pro-Iran militias, mainly Kataib Hezbollah, near Anbar province’s Qaim district and Babil’s Jurf al-Nasr (formerly Jurf al-Sakhar). The US strikes were carried out in response to a missile strike on Anbar’s Ain al-Asad airbase, which houses US troops.

Around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve that has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against ISIS, which once held swathes of land in Iraq and Syria but was declared territorially defeated in 2019. The group remains a security threat, carrying out attacks on military targets and civilians on both sides of the border.

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