The Commander of the US Central Command, General Kenneth MacKenzie, told reporters today, Wednesday, that the US President, Donald Trump, will announce the further withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, and added that this announcement will be followed by another announcement in The coming days on an additional reduction of troops in Afghanistan.
It is noteworthy that President Trump said during his meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Kazemi in Washington last month that American forces would leave Iraq, but he did not give a timetable or specific levels of forces.
The United States has already significantly reduced the size of its forces in Iraq in recent months, especially in the wake of the increase in missile and improvised explosive device attacks, putting pressure on Al-Kazemi, who has vowed to rein in armed groups out of control.
This announcement will come in the midst of the American election campaign, before the presidential elections will be held on November 3.
The United States deployed thousands of troops to Iraq in 2014 to lead a global coalition fighting ISIS that then swept over a third of the country.
Even after Baghdad declared the group’s defeat in late 2017, US and other coalition forces continued their work, training local forces, carrying out air strikes and surveillance drone operations to prevent the return of ISIS elements. By late 2018, there were an estimated 5,200 US troops in Iraq, and they made up the bulk of the then 7,500 coalition forces, according to US officials.
Dozens of missile attacks against these forces and the US embassy in the Green Zone in Baghdad since the beginning of the year have killed at least three American soldiers, a British soldier, and an Iraqi soldier.
It is noteworthy that the number of US forces in Iraq reached 180,000, in addition to tens of thousands of contractors and mercenaries in 2007.
The United States accuses factions close to Iran of carrying out the attacks.
And in Afghanistan, there are currently 8,600 American soldiers deployed there, according to a bilateral agreement signed in February between Washington and the Taliban.
And the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) said last month that its goal is to reduce the number of its personnel to less than five thousand soldiers as peace talks progress between the Afghan government on the one hand and the movement on the other side.
Trump previously stated in a press interview that the White House aims to reach between 4,000 and 5,000 troops in Afghanistan by the presidential elections on November 3.
