ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iraqi military official on Monday denied reports regarding the deployment of US troops to the country, stressing that Baghdad does not need foreign forces.
New York-based CBS News reported on Sunday that 1,500 troops from the New Jersey Army National Guard were being deployed to Iraq and Syria to join the US-led global coalition against Islamic State (ISIS). This would constitute the largest US Army deployment out of New Jersey since 2008.
The alleged deployment of the troops is a part of the US-led global coalition against ISIS’s Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), CBS cited a colonel joining the military campaign and the New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy as saying, in a video showing the troops bidding farewell to their families ahead of leaving the state.
Speaking to Iraqi state media, Major General Tahsin al-Khafaji, the head of Iraq’s Security Media Cell, denied the reports of additional coalition troops coming to Iraq.
Khafaji stressed that Iraq “does not need any foreign forces, and the presence of the global coalition is limited to providing advice, training, and security information.”
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani said earlier this month the Iraqi government “is in the process of setting the date to start working on the bilateral committee to make arrangements to permanently end the presence of the international coalition forces in Iraq.”
The work of the bilateral committee between Iraq and the global coalition, which also includes scheduling the withdrawal of the coalition from Iraq and reconsidering the nature of the relationship in general, will soon be kickstarted.
Khafaji said that there is a vision in Iraq leaning towards holding bilateral memoranda and agreements with “certain coalition countries in matters related to armament, training, and the exchange of information,” without mentioning any specific coalition country.
Around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria are leading an international coalition through Operation Inherent Resolve, which has assisted Kurdish, Iraqi, and local Syrian forces in the fight against ISIS, which once held swathes of land in Iraq and Syria but was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 respectively.
The news of the alleged deployment comes at a time when US troops in Iraq and Syria have been the target of a spate of drone attacks by Iran-backed militia groups since October 17, due to Washington’s support for Israel in its war against Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip
The US has carried out multiple retaliatory strikes on Iran-aligned factions in Iraq and Syria without the approval of the Iraqi government.
In November US warplanes struck pro-Iran fighters in Jurf al-Nasr (formerly Jurf al-Sakhar) in northern Babil province. The strike was “vehemently” condemned by Basem al-Awadi, spokesperson of the Iraqi government, who labeled it as a “blatant violation of sovereignty and an attempt to destabilize the security situation”.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani in a phone call in December warned US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin against taking any direct response to militia attacks without approval from Baghdad.
The Pentagon said in a press release that in the phone call with Sudani, Austin “underscored that the United States reserves the right to act in self-defense against those launching any attack against U.S. personnel.”
The Pentagon blames two Iran-backed militia groups, Kataib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba, for most of the attacks. Both groups are designated terrorist organizations by the US.
An American drone strike on January 4 targeted an Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) logistical support base in eastern Baghdad’s Palestine Street, killing two commanders including Mushtaq Talib al-Saeedi, better known as Abu Taqwa, a former commander of Harakat al-Nujaba and the deputy commander of the PMF’s Baghdad Belt Operations.
Iraq blasted the global coalition for the “unprovoked attack on an Iraqi security body”.
