ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Marine Corp General Kenneth McKenzie, head of United States Central Command, was in Baghdad on Tuesday to discuss the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) and the future of the US presence in Iraq.
The visit comes at a sensitive time for US-Iraqi relations amid growing calls for a complete US withdrawal from Iraqi territory.
McKenzie met with Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, in the Iraqi capital. According to a statement from Abdul-Mahdi’s office, they discussed “joint operations by Iraq and US to eliminate terrorism in the region, as well as shifting Iraq away from being a battlefield for a regional conflict”.
The statement also confirmed that Abdul-Mahdi informed McKenzie that the “Iraqi parliament decision to expel the US troops is an essential move in order to provide security and stability, as well as meeting the recent demands by the Iraqis”.
Following a US drone strike on January 3 which killed a top Iranian general and an Iraqi militia chief at Baghdad airport, the Iraqi parliament passed a non-binding resolution demanding the expulsion of all foreign forces.
Based on a 2014 security agreement, the US-led coalition to defeat ISIS is in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government. The strike against a non-ISIS target, amid rising tensions between Washington and Tehran, was widely seen as an attack on Iraq’s sovereignty.
The meeting between Abdul-Mahdi and McKenzie was attended by Iraq’s Defense Minister Nijah al-Shimari. Falih al-Fayyadh, Iraq’s National Security Advisor and head of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), was also in attendance.
Fayyadh participated in the storming of the US embassy compound in the Baghdad Green Zone on December 31. Thousands of militiamen and their supporters marched on the embassy after US forces conducted airstrikes against the bases of Kataib Hezbollah, a Shiite militia backed by Iran, two days earlier.
The US has around 5,000 troops stationed across Iraqi military bases to advise, assist, and train local forces in the fight against ISIS remnants.
Anti-ISIS operations involving US forces have been put on hold following repeated rocket attacks on US personnel and infrastructure in Iraq by pro-Iran militias.
McKenzie’s visit comes just days after the Pentagon’s Lead Inspector General published a new report outlining the condition of Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR).
Monday’s report to the US Congress, covering the period of October 1 to December 31, confirmed ISIS remnants are still active, capable of conducting small-scale attacks, and enjoying freedom of movement in Iraq’s isolated mountains and deserts.
“ISIS maintained both freedom of movement and the ability to hide and transport fighters and materiel in rural areas where [the Iraqi Security Forces] presence is less intense and ISIS can more easily avoid detection and capture,” the Lead Inspector General report reads.
“ISIS retains enough manpower and planning capabilities to conduct regular small-scale attacks or ambushes against the ISF, the PMF, or local civilians accused of aiding the ISF or informing on ISIS activities.”
The report also says the disputed territories in northern Iraq remain a safe haven for ISIS sleeper cells, as neither the Iraq government nor the Kurdistan Regional Government are willing to conduct operations against ISIS.
“The dispute has created a vacuum in which neither government wants to conduct operations against ISIS in areas of the seam,” the report adds.
Kurdish leaders warned the US-led coalition during this quarter that “hundreds of ISIS fighters occupy the seam and exploit the lack of security presence there”.
Despite the ongoing threat, the report says the number of the ISIS attacks in Iraq has fallen compared to the period of July to September 2019, as “ISIS publicly claimed 67 attacks in Iraq in the first two months of this quarter—roughly half as many as the 138 attacks that the group claimed in the first two months of the previous quarter”.
However, the report also says the true number of ISIS attacks may be far higher, as the Iraqi government’s limiting of internet access during the ongoing nationwide protests blunted the flow of information.
Formed in 2014 to confront the ISIS threat, the 81-country coalition has supported Iraqi and Peshmerga forces with training, equipment, and air cover.
ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017. However, remnants of the group continue to wage a low level insurgency, launching ambushes, kidnappings, and targeted killings.
