Tag: IRAQ

The relationship between Washington and Baghdad regarding the presence of US troops in Iraq has been a subject of ongoing negotiation….reports Asian Lite News

Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah has reiterated its demand for the withdrawal of US troops from the country, marking a resurgence of pressure on American forces after a period of relative calm.

The Iran-backed militia, known for its hostility towards US presence in Iraq, suspended attacks against American troops some months ago but has now resumed its call for their departure, AFP reported.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Kataeb Hezbollah, Abu Ali Al-Askari, criticized both the United States and the Iraqi government for what the group perceives as a lack of seriousness in addressing its demands.

Al-Askari highlighted the group’s frustration with the continued presence of US troops and the alleged existence of American spy bases in Iraq, emphasizing the need for their removal.

The relationship between Washington and Baghdad regarding the presence of US troops in Iraq has been a subject of ongoing negotiation.

US forces are stationed in Iraq as part of an international coalition aimed at combating jihadist groups, including the Islamic State (IS). However, Kataeb Hezbollah views the US military presence as an occupation and has consistently advocated for its withdrawal.

In April, five rockets were fired from Iraq toward a US military base in neighbouring Syria. The attack occurred when unidentified fighters launched the rockets from an Iraqi village near the town of Zummar, northwest of Mosul, the provincial capital of Nineveh, toward northeastern Syrian territories, the unnamed source from the provincial police said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported a failed attempt by Iranian-backed groups to attack a US base at the Kharab al-Jir airport with drones in the northern countryside of Syria’s northeastern province of al-Hasakah, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Britain-based watchdog group said the US ground defences successfully intercepted and shot down the drones before they reached the base.

Following the drone attack, the Iranian-backed fighters launched missiles on the Kharab al-Jir base, said the observatory, adding that US ground defences engaged in intercepting targets in the sky. There were no casualties reported within the base.

The war monitor noted that the Iranian-backed Islamic resistance groups stationed in Iraq were behind the attacks.

Last month, a convoy of US forces plundered more Syrian sources, taking out trucks of oil and grain through an illegal crossing with Iraq, the media reported.

According to the state news agency SANA report released on Monday, 69 vehicles, including 45 tankers with oil and 24 trucks with wheat, were observed exiting the illegal Al-Mahmudiyah crossing on their way to Iraq.

The resources were looted from northeastern Syria’s Al-Hasakah province, and it is believed that the convoy’s destination is US bases in northern Iraq, said the report.

Civilian sources in the countryside of Al-Hasakah near the Iraqi border said that US forces have intensified operations to loot and plunder Syrian resources from areas under their control in the province, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Syrian government has been accusing the US forces of “pillaging Syrian resources,” a move that further exacerbates the economic hardships facing the war-torn country.

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The official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said the emphasis of Sudani’s visit would be economic ties…reports Asian Lite News

The security and defense relationship between the US and Iraq will be an important part of talks when Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani visits Washington next week but is not the primary focus of the visit, a senior State Department official said on Thursday.

The official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said the emphasis of Sudani’s visit would be economic ties, even as Washington and Baghdad are in talks over ending the US-led military coalition in the country.

US forces and Shiite Muslim armed groups have engaged in tit-for-tat attacks in recent months amid regional conflict linked to Israel’s war in Gaza, leading to Sudani in January announcing his intention to end the US military presence.

The senior State Department official said the defense and security relationship will be part of the discussions during Sudani’s visit, when he will meet both with President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“(It is) likely to be a very important part of our – of the discussion,” the official said. “It is not the primary focus of the visit … but it is almost certainly going to come up.”

The visit’s focus will instead be the economy and issues including education, environment and US support for development, the official said, without providing details.

“We’re going to have a full range of discussions about our relationship and where it’s going,” the official said.

The US invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein and withdrew in 2011, only for troops to return in 2014 to help fight Islamic State (IS) after the extremist Sunni Muslim militant group overran large parts of the country.

Washington and Baghdad began talks in January to reassess the US-led military coalition presence there.

The official said those talks were likely to lead to a second joint security cooperation dialogue later this year.

Meanwhile, Iraq is using a period of relative stability to assert more control over the autonomous Kurdistan region that has long had fraught relations with federal authorities, analysts and politicians say.

Long-simmering disputes between Baghdad and Irbil, the capital of the northern region, came to a head recently after several Supreme Court rulings that the Kurds saw as an attempt to weaken the region’s autonomy.

Regional Prime Minister Masrour Barzani warned last week of “conspiracies aimed at undermining and dismantling the Kurdistan region” with “internal support within Kurdistan.”

The pressure is aimed at Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party or KDP, which has been locked in a never-ending rivalry with the other main party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan or PUK.

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Daesh was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and Baghdad has argued the coalition’s mission has therefore ended….reports Asian Lite News

Daesh still poses a threat in Iraq and the US-led military coalition’s work with Iraq to fully defeat the group is not done, United States Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski told Reuters in an interview.

Senior Iraqi politicians, including Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, have repeatedly said that the group no longer posed a threat in Iraq and the coalition was not needed, even as its affiliates continued to carry out attacks elsewhere.

“We both assess Daesh is still a threat here, much, much diminished, but nevertheless our work is essentially not done and we want to ensure that Iraqi forces can continue the enduring defeat of Daesh,” Romanowski said at the US embassy in Baghdad.

She was speaking after Daesh’s Afghan branch, IS-K, claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack at a rock concert near Moscow, in which 137 people were killed.

“As this event reminds us, Daesh is a common terrorist enemy that must be defeated everywhere,” she said in an additional comment after the interview.

“That’s why the United States and Iraq share a commitment to ensure the enduring defeat of Daesh, including by working together to shape the future of a strong bilateral US-Iraq security partnership.”

Last week, at least three people died in a suicide bombing carried out by IS-K in Afghanistan and in January it claimed responsibility for a twin suicide bombing in Iran, which shares a 1,600 km (994 mile) border with Iraq.

Iraq’s prime minister is due to meet US President Joe Biden in Washington on April 15 to discuss the future of the coalition, as well as Iraqi financial reforms and a US push to wean Iraq — a rare ally of both Washington and Tehran — off Iranian power and gas.

While the coalition’s mission is to advise and assist Iraqi forces in the fight against the Daesh, Western officials say the US and its allies also see its presence in Iraq as a check on Iranian influence.

“It’s going to take some time,” to wind down the coalition’s work, Romanowski said, referring to talks between Washington and Baghdad initiated in January amid tit-for-tat attacks between Iran-backed Shia Muslim armed groups and US forces.

US-led forces invaded Iraq and toppled former leader Saddam Hussein in 2003, withdrawing in 2011 but then returning in 2014 to fight Daesh as part of an international coalition. The US currently has some 2,500 troops in the country.

Daesh was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and Baghdad has argued the coalition’s mission has therefore ended.

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Yahya Rasoul said that based on these meetings, a timetable will be set for the gradual reduction of international coalition advisors in Iraq…reports Asian Lite News

Iraq and the US resumed a new round of dialogue to discuss ending the US-led international coalition’s mission in Iraq, the Iraqi government said.

Iraqi military spokesman Yahya Rasoul said on Sunday in a statement that the Higher Military Commission (HMC) resumed meetings with the international coalition side to assess the military situation, the level of threat posed by the Islamic State (IS) group, in addition to the capabilities of the Iraqi forces.

Rasoul said that based on these meetings, a timetable will be set for the gradual reduction of international coalition advisors in Iraq, leading to an end of the coalition mission of fighting IS and the transition to Iraq’s bilateral relations with coalition countries, Xinhua news agency reported.

The meetings with the international coalition will be held periodically to complete the commission work as quickly as possible, as long as nothing disturbs the meetings, Rasoul added.

On January 25, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Iraq agreed with the US to form the HMC to end the international coalition mission in Iraq and move their relationship to comprehensive bilateral relations with the coalition countries at the political, economic, cultural, security and military levels.

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