If All US Troops Don’t Leave

A spokesman for an Iraqi Shia militia said in an interview with Rudaw Sunday that there will be an “appropriate response” if all US troops don’t leave Iraq. At the end of July, President Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced the US will end its “combat” mission in Iraq by the end of 2021, but troops are expected to stay in the country under an advisory role.

“The talks that took place between Baghdad and Washington, and the outcomes they produced, did not achieve the Iraqi ambition, which is the exit of all US forces,” said Sheikh Kadhim al-Fartousi, a spokesman for Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, a militia under the umbrella of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).