Letter on Iraq pullout "genuine" but sent by "mistake," says top US general
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Letter on Iraq pullout a "draft" sent by "mistake," says top US general which also confirmed the authenticity of it.
"There's been no decision to leave Iraq. Period,” Esper told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday, in what appears to have been an off-camera briefing.
He was referring to the reports that the head of Combined Joint Task Force Iraq, General William H. Seely III, had informed the Iraqi government of preparations to reposition the coalition forces “in due deference to the sovereignty” of Iraq.
The US military in a letter informed its counterparts in Baghdad on Monday it was preparing for “movement out of Iraq,” a day after the Iraqi parliament urged the government to oust foreign troops.
Brigadier General William Seely, sent a letter to the head of Iraq’s joint operations command, a copy of which was seen by AFP.
Esper would neither confirm nor deny the letter’s authenticity, though US Army public relations officials said earlier it was real. Instead, he reiterated the position staked out earlier by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that the Iraqi people “want the US to stay,” and cited the rise in attacks by Iranian “proxy groups.”
The letter said forces from the US-led coalition in Iraq would “be repositioning forces over the course of the coming days and weeks to prepare for onward movement”.
“In order to conduct this task, Coalition Forces are required to take certain measures to ensure that the movement out of Iraq is conducted in a safe and efficient manner,” said the letter, dated Monday.
As the letter was signed by a US official, it was not immediately clear whether it applied to forces from the 76 countries which make up the international coalition.
BREAKING: The US military sends a letter to the Iraqi military announcing the “onward movement” of US troops “in due deference to the sovereignty of Iraq & as requested by the Iraqi Parliament & the Iraqi PM”. It’s a withdrawal. pic.twitter.com/tQHSsHTtez— Liz Sly (@LizSly) January 6, 2020
A US defence official and an Iraqi defence official confirmed the letter was real and had been delivered.
It said helicopters would be travelling in and around the Green Zone as part of the preparations.
AFP could hear helicopters flying low over Baghdad throughout the night on Monday.
Some 5,200 US soldiers are stationed across Iraqi bases to support local troops preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State group.
They make up the bulk of the broader coalition, invited by the Iraqi government in 2014 to help combat the jihadists.
On Sunday, Iraq’s parliament voted in favour of rescinding that invitation and ousting all foreign troops.
It came in reaction to a US precision drone strike on Baghdad that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and top Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, among others.
On Monday, Iraqi premier Adel Abdel Mahdi met with the US Ambassador Matthew Tueller, telling him it was “necessary to work together to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq”.
US President Donald Trump likewise rejected the withdrawal on Sunday, threatening Iraq with sanctions and saying the US will not leave until the Iraqis “pay us back” for an airbase that he said cost billions of dollars to build.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said that the letter Seely had sent was only a draft and that releasing it was a “mistake.”
However, the letter incident has marked a level of confusion which is currently besetting Pentagon as a result of IRGC commander assassination by the US which Iran and its proxies vowed retaliation and revenge.
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