Baghdad: US forces have absolutely withdrawn from an air base in western Iraq in implementation of an settlement with the Iraqi authorities, Iraqi officers mentioned Saturday, January 17.
Washington and Baghdad agreed in 2024 to wind down a US-led coalition preventing the Islamic State group in Iraq by September 2025, with US forces departing bases the place that they had been stationed.
Nonetheless, a small unit of US army advisers and assist personnel remained. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in October advised journalists that the settlement initially stipulated a full pullout of US forces from the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq by September. However “developments in Syria” since then required sustaining a “small unit” of between 250 and 350 advisers and safety personnel on the base.
Now all US personnel have departed.
Iraqi Military Chief of Workers Lieutenant Common Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah oversaw the project of duties and duties to varied army items on the base on Saturday following the withdrawal of US forces and the Iraqi Military’s full assumption of management over the bottom, the army mentioned in a press release.
The assertion added that Yarallah “instructed related authorities to accentuate efforts, improve joint work, and coordinate between all items stationed on the base, whereas making full use of its capabilities and strategic location.”
A Ministry of Protection official who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of he was not authorised to remark publicly confirmed that every one US forces had departed the bottom and had additionally eliminated all American gear from it.
There was no assertion from the US army on the withdrawal.
US forces have retained a presence within the semi-autonomous Kurdish area in northern Iraq and in neighbouring Syria.
The departure of US forces might strengthen the hand of the federal government in discussions round disarmament of non-state armed teams within the nation, a few of which have used the presence of US troops as justification for protecting their very own weapons.
Al-Sudani mentioned in a July interview with The Related Press that after the coalition withdrawal is full, “there will probably be no want or no justification for any group to hold weapons exterior the scope of the state.”
