The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State is pulling hundreds of troops out of smaller outposts in Iraq and shifting them to larger, easier to defend bases, amid a string of attacks from Iran-based Shiite militia groups that have raised questions about the long-term viability of the U.S. military presence in the country.
U.S. officials said the repositioning of U.S. forces from Operation Inherent Resolve reflects what they say is the “success of the Iraqi Security Forces in their fight” against the Islamic State terror group remnants dug in along the lawless Iraqi-Syria border.
U.S. officials insisted the plan to shift the American troops had already been in the works and wasn’t a reaction from recent attacks on U.S. personnel by Iran and Iranian-backed proxy forces. But those attacks show no sign of stopping and some U.S. military analysts said the optics of the shift are problematic.
“If the impression solidifies that Washington doesn’t give a damn, that’s a net loss,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. “The U.S. will resolve to use kinetic force when an American life is lost. That means the U.S. won’t use force under a whole host of conditions that falls short of that high threshold.”
The troops are reportedly being moved out of Al-Qaim, a small base near the Syrian border, and the Qayyarah Airfield West base near Mosul. The Pentagon said U.S. Patriot missiles would soon be coming to Iraq to help defend local forces.
The redeployment comes amid open tensions between the Trump administration and the Iraqi government over the continuing attacks on American positions — and the Pentagon’s retaliatory strikes that Baghdad says violate the country’s sovereignty. Citing operational security, Col. Myles B. Coggins, a spokesman for the counter-ISIS mission in Iraq, would not give a specific timetable for the troop movements.
On March 11, a barrage of rockets hit the sprawling Camp Taji base near Baghdad, killing three military personnel, two of them American and one British. It happened about three months after a U.S. contractor was killed in another rocket attack. That set in motion a series of tit-for-tat attacks that nearly brought both nations to the brink of war.
At least three rockets struck Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone near the American Embassy late Tuesday, a day after an attack on a training base south of Baghdad where U.S.-led coalition troops and NATO trainers were present, the Associated Press reported, citing Iraqi security officials said. It was the fourth such attack in the span of a week.
“I think the rocket attacks accelerated [the redeployment] plans,” said retired Army Lt. Gen. Tom Spoehr, director of the Center for National Defense at The Heritage Foundation. “I think U.S. officials are taking this opportunity to either take people out of the area or pack them into a base that’s better protected.”
He noted that “there have been nearly constant rocket attacks that didn’t kill or hurt anybody for the last couple of years.”
But Mr. Ben Taleblu said he had qualms about repositioning the U.S. personnel so soon after they were attacked.
“The political message it sends only vindicates the regime and its proxies and [Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] talking points that America is a paper tiger,” he said. “This is a narrative that needs to be taken more seriously.”
Separately, Iraq’s president Tuesday tabbed a former governor of the city of Najaf to form a new government, the Associated Press reported. The nomination of Premier-designate Adnan al Zurfi, following weeks of political infighting, came in the wake of tense meetings between rival political blocs, including influential parties linked to the Shiite militias which have clashed with American forces.
One powerful Shiite parliamentary bloc, which has pushed for U.S. troops to leave Iraq entirely, said Tuesday it would not support Mr. al Zurfi’s nomination.
• This article was based in part on wire service reports.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.