Washington, USA
The United States this week resumed joint military operations
with Iraq that had been put on pause after the US drone strike that killed a
top Iranian general in Baghdad, the New York Times reported.
A US Marine looks through the scope of a sniper system at the American embassy compound in Baghdad, January 3. (US Marine Corps via Reuters) |
Two
US military officials quoted by the paper said the Pentagon wanted to resume
these operations in order to pick up the fight against the Islamic State group.
Washington
began the pause on January 5 two days after the strike that killed Iranian
general Qasem Soleimani at the Baghdad airport.
The
same day of the suspension furious Iraqi lawmakers voted to expel the more than
5,000 US troops that are in Iraq.
It
was not immediately clear if anyone in the Iraqi government had approved the
resumption of the joint military operations, the Times reported.
The
Pentagon said it had no information to provide concerning a resumption when
contacted by AFP.
US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that Iraqi leaders have told him
privately they support the US troop presence, despite public appeals for them
to leave.
“They
won’t say so publicly. But privately they all welcome the fact that America is
still there executing its counter terror campaign,” Pompeo said at a forum at
Stanford University.
No comments:
Post a Comment