Will the US presence at Ayn al-Assad and Erbil end?
Two security officials told Shafaq News that the US military would continue its operations at the Ain al-Assad and Harir bases in Erbil province.
Despite Mustafa al-Kazemi’s administration agreeing with the US government to withdraw its troops from Iraq by the end of 2021, recent remarks by Kent Mackenzie, head of the Centcom (Territorial Command) terrorist organization, that the force will continue to serve as an advisory and training force. , Has been accompanied by a strong reaction from Iraqi circles.
In this regard, two Iraqi security officials told Shafaq News without naming their names that the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq will not affect the situation of the two important bases “Ain al-Assad” in western Iraq and “Harir” in northern Erbil province. In these two bases, however, they will continue to operate in the form of educational and advisory roles.
Iraqi officials officially announced on Thursday that the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)’s combat mission has ended and that it is leaving the country after seven years of ISIL presence in Iraq. Iraq’s national security adviser officially announced last Thursday that the US-led coalition’s combat mission in the country has ended.
However, the commander of Centcom terrorists told Al-Hurra website the same day that no US withdrawal operation had taken place in Iraq and that only 2,500 US troops had been deployed in Iraq from a state of war to a state of emergency.
US forces re-entered Iraq after an operation to occupy Iraq in 2014 at the request of the Baghdad government to fight ISIS, which at the time occupied a third of the country. Under this pretext, the United States deployed 3,000 troops in the form of an international coalition, of which 2,500 were Americans. Following Baghdad’s victory over ISIS, the Iraqi people and government stressed the need for foreign troops to leave the country.
The Iraqi parliament in January 1998, following the criminal act of the United States in the assassination of Sardar Haj Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, deputy head of the martyr of the Iraqi Al-Hashd al-Shabi organization, ousted US troops.
