Babylon the Great Will Remain in Iraq Despite Militia Warning

U.S. soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, demonstrate using the M240B machine gun during a joint live-fire range exercise with Norwegian forces at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq on May 27, 2020. The U.S. led an international coalition to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but Iraqi militias that also fought the jihadis in both countries have grown impatient with a lingering U.S. military presence years later.SPECIALIST DEREK MUSTARD/COMBINED JOINT TASK FORCE – OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE/U.S. ARMY

Pentagon Says ‘U.S. Forces Will Remain in Iraq’ Despite Militia Warning for Dec. 31

Defying a warning from local militias, a Pentagon official has told Newsweek that U.S. forces will remain in Iraq after the scheduled end of combat operations on December 31.

With less than a month and a half left in the year, an ensemble of Iraqi paramilitary factions known as the Iraqi Resistance Coordination Commission shared with Newsweek a message Friday expressing disappointment with the lack of U.S. military drawdown.

Following talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in July, President Joe Biden had promised an end to the U.S. combat mission in the country by year’s-end.

The statement also alluded to observations “that the brazen American occupation increased its numbers and equipment in its bases in Iraq,” as well as referencing reports suggesting the U.S. intended “not to withdraw from the country under the pretext that there was a request from Baghdad [not] to do so,” something the commission said the Iraqi government has yet to deny.

“We affirm that the weapons of the honorable resistance, which have been talked about a lot in the past days, and some insisted on embroiling them in recent political rivalries, will be ready to dismember the occupation as soon as the moment comes and the deadline ends after twelve o’clock in the evening of 12/31/2021,” the statement said.

This message has been reinforced by leading militia groups such as Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada and the Hezbollah al-Nujaba Movement.

In response, Pentagon spokesperson Navy Commander Jessica McNulty said the U.S. position remains unchanged, and that no total exit is in order.NEWSWEEK SUBSCRIPTION OFFERS >

“The United States will uphold the commitments it made during the July 2021 U.S.-Iraq Strategic Dialogue, including that there will be no U.S. forces with a combat role by the end of the year,” McNulty told Newsweek. “U.S. forces will remain in Iraq, at the invitation of the Government of Iraq, in an advising, assisting, and intelligence-sharing role to support the Iraqi Security Forces in the campaign to defeat ISIS.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed a similar sentiment over the weekend during a meeting in the Bahraini capital of Manama with his Iraqi Defense Minister Jumah Inad Sadun al-Jaburi, whom the Pentagon chief assured that “there will be no U.S. forces with a combat role by the end of the year,” according to the Defense Department.

“The two leaders discussed the next phase for the U.S. military mission in Iraq, which will focus on advising, assisting, and sharing intelligence with the Iraqi Security Forces in support of the campaign to defeat ISIS,” the readout stated on Saturday.

But the Biden administration has offered little insight into exactly what this next phase will look like.https://fa427c3456245fd0af1ec86f78f58e9f.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

In a statement carried by the Iraqi National News Agency that same day, Iraqi Major General Tahsin Al-Khafaji, spokesperson for the Joint Operations Command, said Washington and Baghdad were sticking to their deal.

He said that “talking about extending the date for the withdrawal of American forces is inaccurate and incorrect, and the date for the departure of combat forces on the 31st of next December is fixed and there is no change in it.”

“The relationship between the two parties after the departure of the combat forces will be an advisory relationship in the fields of training, armament, intelligence and security information against the terrorist organization ISIS,” he added.https://fa427c3456245fd0af1ec86f78f58e9f.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in December 2017, and has credited both the U.S. and Iran with supporting operations that ultimately decimated the self-styled caliphate erected by the jihadis across large swathes of Iraq.

But tensions that have since emerged between Washington and Tehran have torn Baghdad from within, especially in the form of clashes between U.S. troops and Iraqi militias, some of whom have received direct support from Iran.