(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lim Hwa-seop = The U.S. military will close the Erbil base in Iraq's Kurdistan autonomous region and withdraw from Iraq on the 30th (local time).
It has been 23 and a half years since the start of the Iraq War in 2003, and 12 years since the re-station of US troops in 2014.
The United States invaded Iraq in March 2003 and declared the end of major combat operations in May after overthrowing Saddam Hussein's regime, but the withdrawal of troops was not completed until December 2011.
Since June 2014, the United States has again stationed troops in Iraq to combat the Sunni extremist group Daesh (Islamic State, IS).
According to the American daily Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 29th, the day before the scheduled closure of the Erbil base, the United States is moving equipment and personnel by air to meet the withdrawal deadline.
The U.S. military has already withdrawn Patriot air defense batteries deployed around the base, and is expected to focus its remaining air defense capabilities on protecting the Iraqi embassy in Baghdad and the consulate in Erbil.
Current and former U.S. government officials explained to the WSJ that some Marines will remain to protect U.S. diplomatic missions, and contractor personnel will remain to maintain Iraq's F-16 fighter jets and U.S.-made tanks.
A senior U.S. government official told WSJ that the U.S. had made it clear to Iraq that "it is very important for Iraq to maintain its sovereignty over its territory and prevent Iranian-backed militias from carrying out attacks on its territory."
A U.S. Department of Defense official said that although the U.S. is ending official military operations, it will maintain regional capabilities such as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance that can be used in Iraq.
This withdrawal follows a schedule agreed upon by the United States with the cabinet led by then-Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani two years ago during the Joe Biden administration.
WSJ explained, “After 23 years and spending over $1.7 trillion (2300 trillion won), the United States is ending the Iraq War, which critics have called a ‘never-ending war.’”
At the same time, he pointed out that while the war between the United States and Iran shows no signs of ending, there are concerns that the instability and crisis in Iraq will deepen further as the influence of heavily armed militias in Iraq supported by Iran grows again.
In the first two months alone, from the end of February when the Iran war began, militants and the Iranian military attacked U.S. diplomatic and military facilities in Iraq more than 600 times.
The U.S. Embassy in Iraq has been sending out frequent security alerts to Americans these days.
Alerts about possible kidnapping by militiamen come out about twice a week.
A U.S. government official said that the militias' weapons are becoming more sophisticated, with long-range missiles and drones being used in recent attacks.
Saudi Arabia this month said it had temporarily halted operations on its east-west oil pipeline due to a drone attack that appears to have been launched from Iraqi territory near the Iranian border.
Another attack also damaged the U.S. diplomatic and logistics base at Baghdad Airport.
For this reason, concerns are being raised that there may be aftereffects in Iraq similar to those that occurred after U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan.
The U.S. military officially ended the war in Afghanistan after 20 years and completed its withdrawal in August 2021, and in the process, the Islamic fundamentalist militant group Taliban regained power.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban later resumed rule with an iron fist based on law, and the power vacuum in the region degenerated into a hotbed for extremist militants.
Previously, when President Donald Trump met Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi at the White House in July of this year, he expressed his expectations for the disarmament of Iraqi militias.
“I don’t think we need the military there anymore,” Trump said at the time. “We have a great champion, a new champion.”
Prime Minister Alzaidi, who was praised as "young and handsome" by President Trump, who was sitting next to him at the time, announced that he had set a deadline of September 30th for the Iranian-backed militia to return its weapons, but this plan has not been realized.
Prime Minister Zaidi, a former businessman who owned a bank, insurance company, media company, and construction company, had no experience in public office before taking office in May of this year.
Major General Saad Man, the Iraqi military's public affairs officer, told the WSJ that some armed factions had surrendered their weapons and that other groups were planning to do so.
However, Kazem al-Fartusi, spokesman for Kataib Sayed al-Shuhada, a paramilitary group designated as a terrorist group by the United States, said, "These weapons are for our sovereignty and freedom," and that the government's attempt to forcibly disarm them "will not happen."
His group and other militias hold high-ranking government positions, hold dozens of seats in the Iraqi parliament, and played a role in the formation of Prime Minister Zaidi's government, the WSJ explained.
Prime Minister Zaidi and his associates are discussing a plan to postpone the disarmament deadline, originally set for September 30, to next year.
Victoria Taylor, a former senior State Department official who worked on Iraq affairs but left office this year, told WSJ that Zaidi's idea that he could disarm the militias in a matter of months was an "impossible ask."
