The United States plans to withdraw 2,200 troops from Iraq before the end of September, a top U.S. official said Wednesday.
“We are continuing to expand on our partner capacity programs that enable Iraqi forces and allow us to reduce our footprint in Iraq,” Marine General Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, said during a visit to Iraq.
The drawdown will take the number of American forces to 3,000.
A senior administration official told reporters on Air Force One late Tuesday that there would be an announcement regarding further troop withdrawals from Iraq.
The official also said there would be an announcement concerning Afghanistan in the coming days.
President Donald Trump was returning to Washington from a rally in North Carolina.
Trump told those assembled: “We kept America out of new wars and we are bringing our troops back home. We are bringing them back home from these faraway places.”
The United States and Iraq in June affirmed their commitment to the reduction of U.S. troops in the country in coming months, with no plans by Washington to maintain permanent bases or a permanent military presence.
In 2016 Trump campaigned on ending America’s “endless wars.” U.S. troops remain in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, albeit in smaller numbers.
“We have been taking our troops out of Iraq fairly rapidly, and we look forward to the day when we don’t have to be there. And hopefully Iraq can live their own lives and they can defend themselves, which they’ve been doing long before we got involved,” he said.
Iraqi officials have mulled ousting U.S. troops, but have not done so.
Trump’s meeting was with Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, who succeeded Abdul-Mahdi. The new prime minister praised the United States for helping defeat ISIS, the terror group, and in toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime.
