Iraq keeping a small contingent of US military advisers due to Daesh threat in Syria

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s prime minister said Monday that a small contingent of US military advisers will remain in the country for now to coordinate with US forces in Syria combating the Daesh group.

Washington and Baghdad agreed last year to wind down an American-led coalition fighting Daesh in Iraq by this September, with US forces departing some bases where they have been stationed.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani told a small group of journalists in Baghdad that US military advisers and support personnel are now stationed at the Ain Al-Asad air base in Western Iraq, a base adjacent to the Baghdad airport, and the Al-Harir air base in northern Iraq

Al-Sudani noted that the agreement originally stipulated a full pullout of US forces from Ain Al-Asad by September, but that “developments in Syria” since then “required maintaining a small unit” of between 250 and 350 advisers and security personnel at the base.

He said they would work “to support counter-ISIS surveillance and coordination with the Al-Tanf base” in Syria.