Iraq confirms some US troops will remain due to ISIS threat in Syria
Washington and Baghdad reached an agreement last year to gradually wind down the US-led coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq by September, with US forces withdrawing from some of the bases where they had been stationed.
Iraq's prime minister said on Monday that a small contingent of US military advisers will remain in the country to coordinate with US forces in neighbouring Syria combating the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
Washington and Baghdad agreed last year to wind down a US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq by this September, with US forces departing some bases where they have been stationed.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani told journalists in Baghdad that US military advisers and support personnel are now stationed at the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq, a base adjacent to Baghdad airport and the al-Harir air base in northern Iraq.
Al-Sudani noted that the agreement originally stipulated a full pullout of US forces from Ain al-Asad by September, but that "developments in Syria" since then required maintaining a "small unit" of between 250 and 350 advisers and security personnel at the base.
He said they would work to support counter-IS surveillance and coordination with the al-Tanf base in Syria.
He added that other US sites are witnessing "gradual reductions" in personnel and operations.
After the fall of Syria's former long-time leader Bashar al-Assad in a rebel offensive in December, fears arose in Iraq of an IS resurgence taking advantage of the ensuing security vacuum and weapons abandoned by the former Syrian army.
Al-Sudani maintained that the extremist group, which seized wide swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria a decade ago, "no longer poses a significant threat inside Iraq."
Iraq has sought to balance its relations with the United States and neighbouring Iran and to avoid being pulled into regional conflicts, a policy that the prime minister said he will continue.
"We put Iraq first and we do not wish to act as a proxy for anyone," he said. "Iraq will not be a battlefield for conflicts."
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