INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
announced an agreement with the Iraqi government Friday to wrap up the military mission in Iraq of an American-led coalition fighting the
Islamic State group by next year, with U.S
troops departing some bases that they have long occupied during a two-decade-long military presence in the country.But the Biden
administration refused to provide details on how many of the approximately 2,500 U.S
Friday without providing specifics.The announcement comes at a particularly contentious time for the Middle East, with escalating conflict
between Israel and two Iranian-backed militant groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza threatening a broader regional war
forces and contractors have been regularly targeted by Iran-backed militias over the last several years, and those attacks intensified late
last year and early this spring after the Israel-Hamas war broke out nearly a year ago.For years, Iraqi officials have periodically called
for a withdrawal of coalition forces, and formal talks to wind down the U.S
presence in the country have been going on for months.U.S
officials who briefed reporters Friday said the agreement will bring about a two-phase transition in the troops assigned to Iraq that began
In the first phase, which runs through September 2025, the coalition mission against ISIS will end and forces will leave some longstanding
bases.Following the November election, American forces will start departing from Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq and from Baghdad
International Airport, according to Iraqi government officials who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity
will continue to operate in some fashion from Iraq through 2026 to support counter-ISIS operations in Syria, a senior Biden administration
official and a senior defense official said on the condition of anonymity on a call with reporters to provide details ahead of the
announcement.Ultimately, the U.S
military mission would transition to a bilateral security relationship, the U.S
officials said, but they did not indicate what that might mean for the number of American troops who remain in Iraq in the future.The Iraqi
said in a speech this month
troops has been a political vulnerability for Sudani, whose government is under increased influence from Iran
Iraq has long struggled to balance its ties with the U.S
research center in Washington.The U.S
of the country and paved the way for American ground troops to converge on Baghdad
The invasion was based on what turned out to be faulty claims that Saddam Hussein had secretly stashed weapons of mass destruction
Such weapons never materialized.The U.S
presence grew to more than 170,000 troops at the peak of counterinsurgency operations in 2007
The Obama administration negotiated the drawdown of forces, and in December 2011, the final combat troops departed, leaving only a small
number of military personnel behind to staff an office of security assistance and a detachment of Marines to guard the embassy compound.In
2014, the rise of the Islamic State group and its rapid capture of a wide swath across Iraq and Syria brought U.S
and partner nation forces back at the invitation of the Iraqi government to help rebuild and retrain police and military units that had
fallen apart and fled.After ISIS lost its hold on the territory it once claimed, coalition military operations ended in 2021
has maintained that presence to pressure Iranian-backed militias active in Iraq and Syria
The presence of American forces in Iraq also makes it more difficult for Iran to move weapons across Iraq and Syria into Lebanon, for use by
its proxies, including the Lebanese Hezbollah, against Israel.Source: AP--Agencies
