The Associated Press reported that American forces will leave some of the bases they have occupied for two decades by next year.
“AP” reported that the American administration refused to provide details about the number of American forces that will remain in Iraq out of about 2,500 soldiers, or to acknowledge that this represents the beginning of a complete withdrawal from the country.
“I think it’s fair to say that our footprint will change within the country,” Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Friday, without offering details.
This announcement comes at a particularly controversial time in the Middle East, with the escalation of the conflict between Israel on the one hand and Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza on the other hand, threatening the outbreak of a broader regional war.
Bases housing US troops and contractors have been targeted by militant groups over the past several years and their targeting intensified in late 2023 and early this spring after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.
US officials said the agreement would lead to a two-phase transfer of forces allocated to Iraq that began this month.
In the first stage Which will continue until September 2025. The international coalition’s mission will end and the forces will leave some old bases.
After the November elections, American forces will begin to leave from Ain al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq and from Baghdad International Airport, according to Iraqi government officials who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The sources indicated that these forces will move to the Harir base in Erbil in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.
In the second stage, FThe United States will continue to operate in some capacity from Iraq through 2026 to support operations against ISIS in Syria, a senior Biden administration official and a senior defense official said on condition of anonymity in a call with reporters to provide details ahead of the announcement.
American officials said that the American military mission would eventually transform into a bilateral security relationship, but they did not indicate what that might mean for the number of American forces that would remain in Iraq in the future.
Iraqi officials stated that some American forces may remain at the Al-Harir base after 2026 because the Kurdistan Regional Government wants them to remain, according to what the agency reported.
Source: “AP”
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2024-09-30 09:51:14
