Will Washington put more boots on the ground in Iraq?
The recent operation in Hawija led by the United States to release Islamic State hostages raised a debate in Iraq about the government’s powers and sovereignty over its territory.
The Oct. 22 raid by US and Iraqi forces to release hostages of the Islamic State (IS) seemed to represent a qualitative leap in military cooperation between the countries. However, the raid provoked controversy over whether the United States informed the proper Iraqi officials ahead of time — and how the answer could affect Iraq's sovereignty.
Although a US soldier was killed and three peshmerga fighters injured, the operation was a success as 69 hostages held by IS since August 2014 were released, 20 IS members were killed and another six were detained. The peshmerga is the military force of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Iraqi parliament speaker Salim al-Jubouri described the operation in an Oct. 25 statement as a “qualitative operation conducted by Iraqi forces consisting of peshmerga and army members, and backed by US forces, to free the hostages in the Hawija district.” The operation was the first of its kind since all US troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011. Its importance resides in the fact that it included ground combat operations by the US troops and not just remote military advisers.
Iraqi political opinion on the street was divided regarding US ground operations in Hawija. Two days after the Oct. 22 raid, the largest Arab Sunni parliamentary bloc in Iraq, the Union of Nationalist Forces, welcomed the news and expressed gratitude to the US and peshmerga forces.
