Pentagon says US troops withdrawal from Iraq not planned
Military vehicles of US soldiers at the Ain Al-Asad air base in the western Iraqi governorate of Anbar. Photo: Reuters
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – Although Baghdad said last week that it would end the mission of the US-led military coalition in Iraq, the Pentagon said on Monday that it was not presently intending to withdraw its 2,500 personnel from the country.
“Right now, I’m not aware of any plans. We continue to remain very focused on the defeat of the ISIS mission,” the Pentagon Press Secretary, Major General Pat Ryder, said.
“U.S. forces are in Iraq at the invitation of its government,” Ryder added.
According to Ryder, Baghdad has not informed the Department of Defense about its plan to withdraw the United States forces. He also directed the media to the US State Department for comments on this issue.
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, said last week that the government is assembling a committee to plan the withdrawal of the foreign coalition led by the United States from the country.
Al-Sudani’s remarks took place a day after a US attack in Baghdad killed a commander in the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), provoking Iran-backed groups, which called for ending the presence of the US-led coalition in Iraq.
According to the Pentagon, the US military carried out an airstrike last Thursday in retaliation for recent attacks on US troops stationed in Iraq and Syria.
900 US soldiers are stationed in neighboring Syria and 2,500 in Iraq in an effort to stop ISIS terrorists from rising again.
Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in October, US and international coalition forces in Iraq and Syria have been attacked more than 100 times, most often by a combination of missiles and one-way attack drones.