Intel: US to pull more troops from Iraq as dialogue with Baghdad continues

The United States said it will further reduce its troop levels in Iraq as American diplomats and their Iraqi counterparts continue a round of dialogue initiated yesterday over the future of the countries’ relationship.

“The two countries recognized that in light of significant progress towards eliminating the [Islamic State] threat, over the coming months the US would continue reducing forces from Iraq and discuss with the Government of Iraq the status of remaining forces,” the two sides said in a joint statement.

Some 5,000 US troops remain in Iraq as part of the US-led military coalition against the Islamic State, which seized swaths of the country’s northwest in a lightning offensive in 2014, prompting international intervention. Iraq declared victory over IS in late 2017.

American and Iraqi diplomats initiated a round of strategic negotiations on Thursday, with the Iraqi side promising to protect US and international coalition forces in the country — a reference to a string of attacks over the past year by Iran-linked militias under the al-Hashd al-Shaabi umbrella on coalition positions at Iraqi bases. The attacks brought the United States and Iran to the brink of open conflict in Iraq earlier this year and hastened the coalition’s consolidation into three larger, more fortified bases in Iraq.