Iraqi officials call on US-led coalition forces to leave the country

Iraq and the United States held a first round of talks in Baghdad, with the aim of ending the mission of the US-led military coalition, which was formed with the aim of fighting ISIS.

Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa al Sudani said in a statement that he began sponsoring the first round of bilateral dialogue between Iraq and the United States, to end the coalition’s mission in Iraq.

For its part, the coalition issued a statement in which it said that working groups were formed from Iraqi and military officials from the coalition, to evaluate the threat of ISIS, the operational and environmental requirements and the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces, and that a higher military committee will work to set the conditions for the transition of the mission in Iraq.

In addition, the spokesman for the Iraqi Joint Operational Command, Brigadier General Tahseen al Khafaji, said that his country’s forces are prepared, thanks to the high readiness of the security forces, to protect his country and impose peace and security.

The start of the talks comes at a time when US forces stationed in Syria and Iraq have been targeted numerous times by drones launched by armed groups that oppose the Israeli war on the Palestinians in Gaza.

For his part, the spokesman for the Nujaba Movement, affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces, Dr. Hussein al Moussawi confirmed that the movement forced the Americans to sit at the negotiating table.

The United States has had a continuous presence in Iraq since the year of the invasion in 2003.

Although all American combat forces left in 2011, thousands of troops returned in 2014 to help the Iraqi government defeat ISIS.

Since the extremist organization lost its field control in Iraq, Iraqi officials have constantly called for the withdrawal of coalition forces, especially after the killing of the commander of the Quds Force, the official in charge of foreign operations of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, General Qassem Soleimani, and the deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, during a US raid near Baghdad airport in 2020.

The calls continued again since Israel began its war on Gaza, following Operation al Aqsa Flood, which was carried out by the Palestinian factions on October 7 last year.

Since that time, Iraqi fighting groups calling themselves “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” launched organized attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria, justifying this as a response to Washington’s support for its war on the Palestinians in Gaza.

The US forces in Iraq and Syria, which number approximately 2,500 soldiers, were subjected to more than 150 attacks, with missiles and drones, and dozens of US soldiers were injured.