Western contractors at a U.S.-led coalition base in Iraq said that American troops have started to reduce the size of the military force in Iraq after Baghdad declared victory over the Islamic State group last year.
Weapons, equipment and dozens of soldiers have been transported from Iraq to Afghanistan over the last few days. According to the Iraqi officials, the U.S.-led coalition and the Iraqi government have reached an agreement to draw down troops in Iraq for the first time since the beginning of the war against the Islamic State, three years ago, Associated Press reports.
Even though the Iraqi officials said that the process has not begun, a reporter at the Al-Asad base in western Iraq saw troop movements reflecting the contractors’ account of a drawdown. The unnamed contractors did not reveal the size of the drawdown.
“Continued coalition presence in Iraq will be conditions-based, proportional to the need and in coordination with the government of Iraq,” coalition spokesman Army Colonel Ryan Dillon said.
According to a senior Iraqi official close to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, 60 percent of all American troops currently in the country will be withdrawn. In that way, only 4,000 U.S. troops will continue training the Iraqi military. Recent reports showed that there were more than 8,800 U.S. troops in Iraq as of late September.
“We’ve had a recent change of mission and soon we’ll be supporting a different theater of operations in the coming month,” U.S. Army 1st Lieutenant William John Raymond said.
Raymond and some of the soldiers from his unit were conducting equipment inventory checks required before leaving the country. The lieutenant did not say where his unit was redeployed.
The withdrawal of American troops comes three months ahead of national elections in Iraq. The indefinite presence of American troops is a divisive issue in Iraq. Iraq’s Shiite-led paramilitary forces with close ties to Iran have called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, while the prime minister has stated that Iraq’s military will need American training for years to come.
After more than three years of exhausting combat against the extremists, Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State in December. In 2014 the IS controlled nearly a third of Iraqi territory.
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