Final UK and US troops go away Iraq as anti-Islamic State mission ends

For the reason that begin of the US and Israel’s struggle with Iran earlier this 12 months, militias have been concentrating on the remaining US and UK forces stationed at Irbil air base.

Tons of of Nato troops stationed in Baghdad left the nation in March as tensions rose.

A BBC workforce visited the coalition base in Irbil in April this 12 months, throughout a fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran.

They had been pressured to circle the bottom in an RAF transport plane whereas drones had been being launched close by.

On the top of the US bombing marketing campaign in opposition to Iran, the coalition base was being focused by as much as 28 drones and missiles a day.

RAF Regiment Gunners, who had been among the many final British army personnel stationed there, had shot down greater than 100 drones within the first six weeks of the struggle. Lots of the assault drones had been being launched by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.

On Wednesday, signalling the top of the mission, the MoD paid tribute to UK personnel who had contributed to the counter-IS mission.

It stated that they had supplied “worthwhile assist, coaching and help” to greater than 111,000 members of the Iraqi Safety Forces, together with greater than 21,000 Peshmerga forces within the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Area.

It additionally stated the RAF had performed 1000’s of sorties, putting greater than 2,300 IS targets. The RAF is predicted to proceed flying missions over neighbouring Syria, to forestall the remnants of IS from gaining a foothold.

The Pentagon stated the US would proceed to supply “focused coaching and intelligence assist” to its Iraqi companions.

US Central Command stated the coalition’s joint taskforce remained operational and was now based mostly in Jordan.

US forces will even proceed their mission in opposition to IS in Syria, the place the UN estimates that the group has as much as 3,000 fighters.

That is the third time US and UK forces have withdrawn from Iraq.

Tens of 1000’s of US and British troops had been deployed to the nation in 1991 following Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.

They returned to Iraq in 2003, when US President George W Bush ordered Operation Iraqi Freedom to take away the dictator from energy and remove weapons of mass destruction that turned out to not exist.

The fierce sectarian insurgency that engulfed Iraq following the invasion price tens of 1000’s of lives, together with these of almost 4,500 US army personnel and 179 British army personnel.

US and UK forces left Iraq in 2011, solely to return three years later, when IS threatened to take management of the nation.