RFE/RLMon, 05 Feb 2018 19:33 UTC
U.S. Marines fire a howitzer at an IS infiltration route in March 2016
U.S. forces have begun scaling down their numbers in Iraq after Iraqi authorities declared "victory" over the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, an Iraqi government spokesman has said.
Saad al-Hadithi said on February 5 that the battle against IS had ended "and so the level of the American presence will be reduced."Hadithi stressed that the drawdown was still in its early stages and at present did not mark the beginning of a complete withdrawal of U.S. forces.
Hadithi's statement came in confirmation of reports by Western contractors at a U.S.-led coalition base in Iraq, who said U.S. troops had started to withdraw from the country.
The reports said U.S. soldiers, weapons, and equipment were being transported out of Iraq to Afghanistan.The contractors said dozens of U.S. soldiers had left on daily flights over the past week.The United States first launched air strikes against IS in Iraq in August 2014 and in the following years closely backed key Iraqi military victories, including the retaking of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.
A Pentagon report released in November said there were almost 8,900 U.S. troops in Iraq as of late September.
Comment: American troops
are leaving Iraq for Afghanistan as part of an agreement between Baghdad and the US-led coalition, contractors told AP. Sixty percent of troops will eventually be withdrawn, according to an Iraqi official.
Dozens of US soldiers have already been transported over the past week, along with weapons and equipment, according to the contractors.
"Continued coalition presence in Iraq will be conditions-based, proportional to the need and in coordination with the government of Iraq," coalition spokesman Army Col. Ryan Dillon told AP.
A senior Iraqi official close to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said 60 percent of all US troops currently in the country will be withdrawn, citing an agreement reached between Baghdad and Washington. That would leave some 4,000 US troops to continue training the Iraqi military.
A journalist at the Al-Asad base in western Iraq reported that troop movements were taking place at the facility, which appeared to be in line with the contractors' accounts. However, the Iraqi government said the process has not officially begun.
Update (Feb. 6): Iraqi Popular Forces Give Last Ultimatum to US Army
"Clashes may break out with the Americans at any time, and this time no mediation will help the Americans and it is not like the past," al-Hosseini was quoted by the Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news channel as saying on Tuesday.
He described the US military deployment as occupation of Iraq, and said, "It was the Americans who brought the ISIL to Iraq to have a pretext to return."
Al-Hosseini said that the weapons and equipment seized from the ISIL terrorists in the town of Tikrit in Iraq were the ones used merely by the American forces.
In relevant remarks last September, al-Hosseini had warned the US to withdraw its military men from Iraq once the ISIL is fully defeated in the country..
He described the American forces' presence as the biggest obstacle to Iraq's anti-terrorism fight, and called for the withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq after the ISIL will be defeated.
Also, last March, al-Hosseini warned that his forces will target the US forces if they don't leave the Iraqi territories after annihilation of the ISIL terrorists.
"If the US forces refrain from leaving the Iraqi territories after annihilation of the ISIL terrorist group, the Islamic resistance of Iraq will target them," al-Hosseini said.
Noting that the US forces are protecting rather than fighting against the ISIL terrorists in Iraq, he said that the Americans have increased their activities in Iraq in recent days through their military advisors the number of their flights and want to open some space for themselves in the anti-ISIL campaign to be able to render more support to the terrorist group.
Al-Hosseini described the ISIL and the US as two sides of the same coin, and said the Americans' presence in Mosul is not aimed at uprooting ISIL as they plan to make sure of their deployment in the region after expulsion of the ISIL.
He said that the ISIL has been created and nurtured by the US, and added that Washington wants to fool the world again and introduce itself as a partner in the anti-ISIL war.
Comment: American troops are leaving Iraq for Afghanistan as part of an agreement between Baghdad and the US-led coalition, contractors told AP. Sixty percent of troops will eventually be withdrawn, according to an Iraqi official. Update (Feb. 6): Iraqi Popular Forces Give Last Ultimatum to US Army