News brief: Troops redeployed to western Iraq
by Angelina Vaccari
edited by Jennifer Rehm
(Photo: Kevin Liptak)
Despite Donald Trumps’s claims to bring U.S. troops home, they are being redeployed to western Iraq, according to the Washington Post.
Turkey launched an offensive on October 9th, crossing Syria’s northern borders in an attempt to eradicate a group of Kurdish Syrians considered terrorists by Turkey’s government. Shortly before this offensive, Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan made a phone call to U.S. President Donald Trump which resulted in approximately 1,000 U.S. forces being removed from Syria and leaving Kurdish allies to defend themselves.
The Turkish military has suffered seven fatalities as of October 20th. Trump adamantly defended his decision to remove U.S. forces stating that “it’s time for us to come home.” Despite that statement, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper stated that the current plan for the U.S. troops involves redeployment to Iraq.
Aside from the 200-300 U.S. troops being sent to Syria’s southern border, all other troops will be relocated to western Iraq. According to Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, “The quickest way to get them out of danger was to get them to Iraq.” Esper stated that troops would help defend Iraq while ‘performing counter terrorist missions against ISIS.’
The U.S. initially removed U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011 but currently has more than 5,000 troops located in Iraq. There is no set date of return for the U.S. troops deployed in Iraq.
