Washington and Baghdad are set to begin formal talks about winding down the activities of a U.S.-led coalition tasked with fighting the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) terrorist group in Iraq.
According to officials from both countries, Iraqi and U.S. representatives will soon meet to lay the groundwork for discussions, which will be held within the framework of a U.S.-Iraq Higher Military Commission (HMC).
“The United States and the government of Iraq will start working-group meetings of the HMC in coming days,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said at a Jan. 25 press briefing.
An estimated 2,500 U.S. troops are currently deployed in Iraq as part of an international U.S.-led coalition tasked with preventing a resurgence of ISIS.
Said to be an offshoot of al-Qaeda, ISIS overran vast swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014. By 2019, the group was said to have been largely eradicated.
But in early January, ISIS emerged from the shadows to claim responsibility for a terrorist bombing in southeastern Iran that left scores dead.
Pentagon: No Troop Withdrawals
According to the Pentagon, the upcoming HMC meeting will discuss possible timetables for ending the coalition’s mandate—not for withdrawing U.S. troops from the country.“Let me be clear,” Ms. Singh said. “The HMC meeting is not a negotiation about the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.”
“The United States and the coalition are in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government to fight ISIS,” she told reporters.
When pressed as to whether the meeting would discuss possible troop withdrawals, she said: “Conversations about our troop levels—that’s something that this working group is going to take a look at.”
In a statement issued the same day, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the HMC would seek to facilitate “the transition to an enduring bilateral security partnership between the United States and Iraq.”
Iraq’s foreign ministry said the upcoming meeting would “set a clear timeline for the duration of coalition advisors’ stay in Iraq and their gradual departure from Iraqi soil.”
Escalating Attacks
Since early October, U.S. forces deployed in Iraq have come under almost daily drone and rocket attacks by local militia groups.The attacks are a response to an ongoing Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has left thousands of Palestinians—mostly civilians—dead.
On Jan. 20, a U.S. airbase in western Iraq was hit by multiple rockets, injuring four U.S. military personnel and causing significant material damage.
According to the Pentagon, U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have come under attack more than 150 times since Israel began its offensive in Gaza.
The United States has responded by striking targets associated with Iraqi militia groups, which the Pentagon claims operate as “proxies” for Iran.
On Jan. 4, the leader of Iraq’s Harakat al-Nujaba militia group was killed in Baghdad by a U.S. drone strike.
Earlier this week, the United States carried out airstrikes on several Iraqi targets, killing a member of the Kataib Hezbollah militia group.
According to U.S. military officials, both groups were responsible for planning and executing recent attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.
Baghdad, however, condemned the strikes as “blatant violations” of Iraq’s sovereignty.
Iraqi military spokesman Yehia Rasool called the U.S. strikes on Jan. 23 “an unacceptable act that undermines years of cooperation … and amounts to an irresponsible escalation.”
Further straining relations, some of the groups targeted by the United States operate within the framework of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of local militias loosely affiliated with Baghdad.
‘Adjusting’ Relations
The escalating violence has led to mounting calls by Iraqi officials to terminate the U.S.-led coalition’s mandate.On Jan. 5, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed al-Sudani announced his intention to “end the international coalition [in Iraq] now that the justification for its existence has ended.”
Days later, he called for “adjusting” the U.S.-Iraq relationship “so as not to give any party—internal or foreign—justification for tampering with Iraq’s stability.”
“Let’s agree on a timeframe [for the departure of coalition forces] … so that these attacks [on U.S. bases] don’t keep happening,” Mr. al-Sudani said on Jan. 10.
According to a U.S. official quoted by Reuters, behind-the-scenes talks about ending the coalition’s mandate have been ongoing since last year.
“We have been discussing this for months,” the official told the news agency on Jan. 24. “The timing is not related to recent attacks.”
Nevertheless, the official added: “The United States will maintain the full right of self-defense during the talks.”
The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 on false claims that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. forces remained in the country for the next eight years, triggering an armed insurgency and an unprecedented wave of sectarian violence between Iraqi ethnic and religious groups.
U.S. forces withdrew from the country in 2011 but returned three years later—at Baghdad’s request—following the sudden emergence of ISIS.
