The Trump administration on Wednesday announced that 2,200 American troops will be pulled from Iraq, adding that top officials are looking to announce a draw down in Afghanistan in the next few days.
Central Command Commander Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. said the withdrawal means will drop the U.S. troop level in Iraq to 3,000 and will happen by the end of September. “This reduced footprint allows us to continue advising and assisting our Iraqi partners in rooting out the final remnants of ISIS in Iraq and ensuring its enduring defeat,” McKenzie said, according to CNN.
“Over the last seven or eight months, we have had to devote resources to self-protection that we would otherwise devote for the counter-ISIS fight and we’ve had to pull back and our partners have had to pull back,” he said. “At the same time we’ve done things to harden our positions to make it more difficult for Iran to attack us in Iraq — but it has had an effect,” the general said.
Meanwhile, a senior administration official “told reporters on Tuesday to also expect an announcement on troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in a couple days,” CNN reported. – READ MORE
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