Pompeo warns Iraq, as coalition consolidates into larger bases

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with Iraq’s acting Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi on Sunday and pressed him on the need for Iraq to protect US-led coalition forces.

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with Iraq’s acting Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi on Sunday and pressed him on the need for Iraq to protect forces of the US-led coalition, according to a statement State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus released on Monday.

The coalition, formally known as Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Iraqi Resolve (CJTF-OIR), has been in Iraq since 2014, working with Iraqi forces to combat the so-called Islamic State.

Also on Monday, The Washington Post reported that CJTF-OIR was moving troops out of smaller bases in Iraq. Most will be redeployed to larger bases in the country, but others will move to Syria, where the coalition is supporting the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in their fight against the Islamic State, as well as to Kuwait.

The coalition troops will be leaving two bases in northern Iraq: K1, outside of Kirkuk, and Q-West, south of Mosul. They will also depart al-Qaim in western Iraq.

Officials told the Post that the move was long-planned, and it was not the result of recent Shia militia attacks on Iraqi bases hosting US forces. Rather, they claimed, it reflected the coalition’s success against the Islamic State.

As Ortagus explained, Pompeo, in his discussion with Abdul Mahdi, reiterated that “Iraq must defend coalition personnel supporting the Iraqi government’s efforts to defeat ISIS.”

According to US authorities, the Iranian-backed militia, Kata’ib Hizbollah, was behind the two recent Katyusha rocket attacks on Camp Taji. The first assault, on March 11, killed one British medic and two US soldiers, while it injured 14 others.

The US retaliated the next day, striking five Kata’ib Hizbollah weapons depots. But the militia responded with a second assault on March 14, wounding three Americans and two Iraqis.

Read More: Coalition, Iraqi troops wounded in second rocket attack on base north of Baghdad

Taji, some 20 miles north of Baghdad, is the main training base for Iraqi forces. It encompasses a very large area and was originally built under Saddam Hussein for Iraq’s Republican Guards.

Despite the firmness of Pompeo’s position, it seemed to suggest the US was not looking, at least for now, to respond militarily to the last attack.

The proxy war between the US and Iran on Iraqi soil is highly disruptive to Iraq’s fragile political system. While Iraqi President Barham Salih condemned the first assault on Taji as a “terrorist attack,” he also condemned the US retaliation as a “violation of Iraqi sovereignty.”

Following the second assault on Taji, Iraq’s military said it would take all measures “to prosecute and arrest those who carried out the attack.”

It seems the initial US response is to accept Baghdad’s preferred way to deal with the assaults. That is suggested by the redeployment of coalition troops into larger bases, as well as Pompeo’s discussion with the Iraqi Prime Minister.

“Pompeo underscored that the groups responsible for these attacks must be held accountable,” Ortagus said.

However, Pompeo also stressed that “America will not tolerate attacks and threats to American lives and will take additional action as necessary in self-defense.”

Presumably, if the Iraqi effort falls short or if there is another significant attack, the US would be prepared to retaliate militarily.

Indeed, the head of CENTCOM, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, briefing reporters on Friday, explained that he had asked the Secretary of Defense to keep two aircraft carriers in the region, and his request had been granted.

“The beauty of an aircraft carrier is this,” McKenzie explained, in response to a reporter’s question. “It has enormous offensive capability. It has enormous defensive capability.”

“There are no access, basing, and overflight issues,” he continued. “It’s a floating piece of American sovereignty,” which “has mobility” and “we can move it around.”

“So the carriers are very important to us,” he concluded, “and we know that the Iranians watch them very closely too.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany