ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi army announced on Wednesday that the US-led global coalition against the Islamic State group will hand over the strategic Ain al-Assad airbase in western Iraq to the country’s security forces next week.
“The coalition’s mission has ended, and the focus has shifted toward concluding bilateral international memoranda and understandings, whether with the United States or with France, Britain, and Italy at present,” said Lieutenant General Qais al-Muhammadawi, Deputy Commander of Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC), during a press conference.
“This work was agreed upon three months ago and has now been concluded at the Joint Operations Command. There are no coalition personnel remaining at Ain al-Asad base, and next week will witness a complete withdrawal and the handover of the base to Iraqi forces. A timetable is being set to complete all these matters,” he added.
The developments come as Washington and Baghdad had agreed in 2021 to shift their security partnership into an advise-and-assist mission.
In late November, Muhammadawi told Rudaw that the US-led coalition against ISIS has effectively concluded its mission in federal Iraq, with remaining coalition forces now based in the Kurdistan Region.
Information obtained by Rudaw from the JOC at the time revealed that nearly 1,500 American and coalition personnel are currently in the Kurdistan Region, representing seven countries - primarily the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy.
The push accelerated after the US strike in 2020 that killed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) deputy Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Iran’s Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani near Baghdad International Airport. Following the strike, 168 lawmakers in Iraq’s 329-seat parliament voted for the expulsion of foreign troops.