U.S. coalition cedes Camp Taji base to Iraqi forces

The coalition led by the United States in Iraq has transferred the military base of Camp Taji, located north of Baghdad, to the Iraqi forces, according to an official communiqué of the American Army that is picked up by the Russian agency Sputnik. The coalition has indicated that the Iraqi security forces will continue fighting from this point against the remains of Daesh that still resist in Iraq and now they will have to take charge of installations and equipment worth 347 million dollars. 

As part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the Camp Taji base has come to house some 2,000 allied military personnel, most of whom have been withdrawn during this summer. In the past, the troops stationed at this base included a Spanish battalion of transport helicopters, as well as military advisors from Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States, and NATO.  

More than two and a half years after the "victory" over the jihadists, thousands of U.S. soldiers are still deployed in the country. After some thirty rocket attacks against the Americans, and after the assassination in January by Washington of the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant in Baghdad, the feeling of rejection against the United States among the population has shot up, according to the AFP agency. 

Iraqi Shiite MPs voted to expel the foreign soldiers and Washington responded with threats of attacks on paramilitary sites. The arrival of Mustafa al-Kazemi to the presidency has changed the situation. He has assumed the leadership of a country in the midst of an economic crisis and with a citizenry that demands justice for the 550 protesters killed in the repression of an unprecedented popular revolt in October 2019. Unlike his predecessor Adel Abdel Mahdi, who was never invited to Washington, Kazemi was the first Iraqi president to be received by the president of the United States.

 It is unlikely that there will be a drastic departure of soldiers, since the jihadist threat persists, according to the rest of the members of the coalition, who have been very attentive to these talks in which they have not participated. "The non-US members of the coalition will stay in Iraq only if the Americans stay," one diplomat told AFP. 

The economic crisis caused by COVID-19 has directly impacted Iraq due to the collapse in the price of a barrel of oil. The country is trying to guarantee the reconstruction contracts agreed with the Americans. The authorities also seek to close deals with the Gulf countries and the World Bank to receive aid. Iran's allies in Iraq are also keeping a close eye on the country's new talks with the United States, although they will not participate. Ahmed Asadj, spokesman for his parliamentary bloc, which led the vote in favor of expelling foreign soldiers, has reiterated that he gives Americans six months to leave the country.