The Iraqi government is beginning the process of withdrawing the US-led international military coalition from the country. This was stated on January 5 by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani after the US military launched an airstrike in Baghdad, which killed the influential warlord Mushtaqa al-Jawar.
“The government is setting a date for the start of the work of a bilateral committee to take measures to permanently end the presence of international coalition forces in Iraq,” the Iraqi Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement, quoted by the agency Reuters. It is clarified that there are currently 2.5 thousand foreign military personnel in Iraq.
As noted, Washington suspects the al-Jawar group of attacks on employees of US departments in Iraq, including organizing a mortar attack on the embassy in Baghdad. The Pentagon stated that no civilians were injured as a result of the air strike. In turn, the Iraqi authorities condemned this strike, reported Reuters.
Prior to this, on December 26, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said that the US Armed Forces had attacked three facilities belonging to the Kataib Hezbollah group in Iraq. As he noted, the strikes are a response to a series of attacks carried out on US troops in Iraq and Syria. According to the head of the Pentagon, the militias that attacked US bases were sponsored by Iran.
A month earlier, Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said that US forces in Iraq and Syria had been attacked 66 times since October 17, with at least 60 people injured. On November 7, Singh said that the United States does not see significant damage from increased attacks on its forces in the Middle East. According to her, the US blames the attacks on groups associated with Iran, and explains their intensification by the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
In October, Austin said the department was prepared to take action if Iranian-backed attacks on US forces in the Middle East continued.
Attacks on American bases in the Middle East have become more frequent amid the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, in which the United States supported Israel.
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