Iraq: Drone strike on base housing Americans in Kurdistan

Baghdad | A drone strike on an American soldier in Iraqi Kurdistan (north) on Friday morning, without any casualties, we learned on Saturday from the International Anti-Jihadi Coalition in Iraq.

“A drone struck a coalition base in Kurdistan, causing no casualties,” Washington-led coalition spokesman Colonel Wayne Marotto told AFP.

According to the local Kurdish press, the attack targeted the base of al-Harir, 70 kilometers northeast of the capital, Erbil, in the autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Iraqi Prime Minister Moustafa al-Kazimi is expected to discuss with President Joe Biden in Washington on Monday the US military presence in Iraq, a captured country between its American and Iranian allies, and sworn enemies.

Of the 3,500 members of the International Coalition, the United States still deploys 2,500 troops in Iraq.

Pro-Iranian groups have demanded their departure, with dozens of attacks in Iraq against US interests.

In a statement issued Friday, the “Iraqi Resistance Facilities Coordinating Committee”, which sees Iran as a “false nose”, called for a “complete withdrawal of all American forces” and “an end to the occupation.

The United States returned to Iraq in 2014 as head of an international coalition to assist Iraqi forces in defeating the Islamic State (IS) jihadist organization, which was officially defeated in the country in 2017.

However, members of the ultra-radical organization are in the mountains and desert areas and its sleeper cells are still on strike.

The majority of American troops under President Donald Trump have withdrawn. There is still a mission to train and advise the Iraqi military and counter-terrorism forces on officially deployed troops.

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