The US will slash troop levels in Iraq from 5,200 to 3,000 this month, a top American military commander in the Middle East confirmed on Wednesday, making good on President Trump’s pledge to get the country out of “endless wars.”
“This reduced footprint allows us to continue advising and assisting our Iraqi partners in rooting out the final remnants of ISIS in Iraq and ensuring its enduring defeat,” Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of the military’s Central Command, said in Iraq.
“The U.S. decision is a clear demonstration of our continued commitment to the ultimate goal, which is an Iraqi security force that is capable of preventing an ISIS resurgence and of securing Iraq’s sovereignty without external assistance,” McKenzie said. “The journey has been difficult, the sacrifice has been great, but the progress has been significant.”
According to New York Post,a senior Trump administration official aboard Air Force One on Tuesday told reporters that an announcement on a troop withdrawal in Iraq and Afghanistan was expected any day.
US forces have been in Afghanistan since 2001, America’s longest war.
They invaded Iraq in 2003, but pulled out in 2011 and then returned in 2014 as the Islamic State began to expand its territory in the Middle Eastern country.
The reduction would return the US to the levels from 2015 – far from the peak of 150,000 troops after the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Trump talked about the reduction during a White House meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
“So at some point, we obviously will be gone,” the president said. “We look forward to the day when we don’t have to be there, and hopefully Iraq can live their own lives and they can defend themselves, which they’ve been doing long before we got involved.”
