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The US military command in the Middle East said on Wednesday that it had been decided to reduce the military presence in Iraq this September. US President Donald Trump is expected to issue a similar statement on Wednesday, on a further withdrawal of more forces from his country from Afghanistan, despite their role in the war against jihadist groups, especially sleeper cells. of the organization “Islamic State”.
The US military leadership in the Middle East announced Wednesday the reduction of its forces in Iraq, while a similar announcement is expected from the president. Donald trump It also includes the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, less than two months before the presidential elections in the United States.
“After recognizing the great progress made by Iraqi forces and consulting and coordinating with the Iraqi government and our coalition partners, the United States decided to reduce its military presence in Iraq from approximately 5,200 to 3,000 troops during the month of September,” he said the commander of the United States Central Command, General Kenneth McKinsey of Baghdad.
In a speech on the inauguration of the new commander of the anti-ISIS coalition, General Paul Calver, McKinsey said that the United States will continue to support the Iraqi army in its battle against the last active jihadists in the country, and will maintain a limited military presence in Syria.
Pressure on the Kazemi government
The rocket attacks and improvised explosive devices have increased pressure on Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi, who has vowed to curb out-of-control armed groups vehemently opposing the US presence in Iraq.
During his meeting with Al-Kazemi in Washington last month, Trump said US forces would leave Iraq, but did not specify a timeline or specific troop levels.
On the same subject, a senior US administration official told reporters on Tuesday that the president will issue an announcement today, without further details. The announcement will come in the middle of the US election campaign, before the November presidential election.
At the request of an Iraqi
The United States has already significantly reduced the size of its forces in Iraq in recent months. This came after the Iraqi parliament’s request to withdraw US forces from the country, following the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and the deputy head of the Iraqi Mobilization Authority, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, near the Baghdad airport in January. 2020.
The US embassy in Baghdad and US military and non-military interests have been the target of several assaults in recent months, which were adopted by groups unknown but suspected of being linked to Iran.
“The withdrawals are part of the agreed transition to the role of the US-led coalition in Iraq,” an Iraqi official said, ahead of Trump’s announcement on Wednesday.
The United States deployed thousands of troops to Iraq in 2014 to lead a global coalition fighting the “Islamic State” organization, which then invaded a third of the country’s territory.
Even after Baghdad declared the extremist group’s defeat in late 2017, the United States and other coalition forces continued their work, training local forces, conducting airstrikes and drone surveillance operations to prevent the return of the jihadists.
At the end of 2018, there were an estimated 5,200 US troops in Iraq, and they made up the bulk of the then 7,500 coalition forces, according to US officials.
Attacks on American interests
Dozens of missile attacks against US forces and the US embassy in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad since the beginning of the year have killed at least three US soldiers, a British soldier and an Iraqi soldier.
US officials have accused factions close to Tehran that have long insisted that all US forces leave the Middle East to carry out the attacks. Tehran fired ballistic missiles at the US base in western Iraq in response to Soleimani’s assassination, without causing serious damage.
But the Kazemi government, considered a friend of the United States, has been slow to adopt the Iraqi parliament’s decision on the withdrawal of foreign forces. This is at a time when the coalition has begun to quietly withdraw its forces since March, reducing its presence in dozens of bases across the country to just three.
Coronavirus ghost
US officials said some forces had been reassigned to major bases in Baghdad and Erbil in the north and Ain al-Assad in the west, but most had been relocated out of Iraq.
They indicated that the reduction was planned long after the defeat of the jihadists, but acknowledged that the schedule had been accelerated by the missile attacks and the fear of the spread of the Corona virus.
However, attacks on the United States continued. On Tuesday night, an explosive device targeted a supply column heading for an Iraqi base where US forces were present, killing a member of the Iraqi security forces.
Other withdrawals from Afghanistan
The senior US administration official said Trump would announce more withdrawals from Afghanistan in the coming days. And there are currently 8,600 US troops there, according to a bilateral agreement signed in February between Washington and the Taliban.
In the context, the United States Department of Defense (Pentagon) said in August that its objective is to reduce the number of its personnel to less than five thousand soldiers with the advance of the peace talks between the Afghan government on the one hand and the movement for another.
Trump previously stated in a press interview that the White House aims to reach between 4,000 and 5,000 troops in Afghanistan by the November presidential election.
Under the agreement between the United States and the Taliban, all foreign forces must leave the country before spring 2021, in exchange for security commitments from the extremist movement.
Trump, now trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden at the polls ahead of the Nov. 3 election, had previously promised to bring troops home in an effort to end what he described as the “endless wars” of states. United.
France 24 / AFP
