{"id":13069,"date":"2020-01-07T06:46:33","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T03:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/?p=13069"},"modified":"2020-01-07T06:46:36","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T03:46:36","slug":"us-denies-iraq-pullout-amid-letter-confusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/07\/us-denies-iraq-pullout-amid-letter-confusion\/","title":{"rendered":"US denies Iraq pullout amid letter confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper has denied US troops are pulling out of Iraq, after a letter from a US general there suggested a withdrawal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter said the US would be “repositioning forces in the coming days and weeks” after Iraqi MPs had called for them to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Esper said there had been “no decision whatsoever to leave”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The confusion came amid threats to American forces after the US killed top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He died in a US drone strike in Baghdad on Friday on the orders of Mr Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The killing has sharply increased regional tensions, with Iran threatening “severe revenge”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was in the letter?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It appeared to have been sent by Brig Gen William H Seely, head of the US military’s task force in Iraq, to Abdul Amir, the deputy director of Combined Joint Operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It starts: “Sir, in due deference to the sovereignty of the Republic of Iraq, and as requested by the Iraqi Parliament, and the Prime Minister, CJTF-OIR (Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve) will be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter says certain measures, including increased air traffic, will be conducted “during hours of darkness” to “ensure the movement out of Iraq is conducted in a safe and efficient manner”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would also “alleviate any perception that we may be bringing more Coalition Forces into the IZ (Green Zone in Baghdad)”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How has it been explained?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mr Esper told reporters in Washington: “There’s been no decision whatsoever to leave Iraq. I don’t know what that letter is… We’re trying to find out where that’s coming from, what that is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But there’s been no decision made to leave Iraq. Period.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The highest-ranking US soldier, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, then appeared at a briefing, saying the letter was “a mistake”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said it was a draft which was poorly worded, had not been signed and should not have been released. It was being circulated for input, including from Iraqis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“[The letter] was sent over to some key Iraqi military guys in order to get things co-ordinated for air movements, etc. Then it went from that guy’s hands to another guy’s hands and then it went to your hands. Now it’s a kerfuffle.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gen Milley reiterated that US troops were not leaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what is happening?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gen Milley said the issue was being “worked” with the Iraqis, but gave no details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said he had been told by a coalition source that the letter was to let the Iraqis know the US was moving troops out of the Green Zone to provide protection elsewhere and did not mean a withdrawal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Twitter<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This has been backed up by other coalition sources, telling separate reporters that the move was to “thin out” the Baghdad personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the US and other forces doing in Iraq?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are just over 5,000 US troops in Iraq, part of the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, which was set up in 2014 to tackle the Islamic State group after it had captured a large swathe of Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are about a dozen primary member countries, and scores more providing non-combat support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main focus of the task force is to train and equip Iraqi forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
Media captionWho was Qasem Soleimani?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday, Iraqi MPs passed a non-binding resolution calling for foreign troops to leave in the wake of Soleimani’s assassination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Trump then threatened severe sanctions against Iraq if US troops left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have a very extraordinarily expensive airbase that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build. We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BBC News<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper has denied US troops are pulling out of Iraq, after a letter from a US general there suggested a withdrawal. The letter said the US would be “repositioning forces in the coming days and weeks” after Iraqi MPs had called for them to leave. Mr Esper said there had been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":13070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27983"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13071,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13069\/revisions\/13071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}