*
Austin most senior official in Biden administration to
visit
Iraq
*
Says troops to remain at invitation of Iraqi government
*
Trip comes ahead of 20th anniversary of U.S.-led invasion
*
Also aims to support Sudani's push back against Iranian
influence in country -experts
(Adds Austin's comments after meeting with Kurdish president)
By Idrees Ali and Amina Ismail
BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq March 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense
Secretary Lloyd Austin, making an unannounced trip to Iraq on
Tuesday nearly 20 years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled
Saddam Hussein, said Washington was committed to keeping its
military presence in the country.
The 2003 invasion led to the deaths of tens of thousands of
Iraqi civilians and created instability that eventually paved
the way for the rise of Islamic State militants after the U.S.
withdrew its forces in 2011.
Austin, the most senior official in President Joe Biden’s
administration to visit Iraq, was the last commanding general of
U.S. forces there after the invasion.
"U.S. forces are ready to remain in Iraq at the invitation
of the government of Iraq," Austin told reporters after meeting
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani.
"The United States will continue to strengthen and broaden our partnership in support of Iraqi security, stability, and sovereignty," he said. Sudani later said in a statement that his government's approach is to maintain balanced relations with regional and international governments based on shared interests and respect for sovereignty, and that "the stability of Iraq is the key to the security and stability of the region." The United States currently has 2,500 troops in Iraq - and an additional 900 in Syria - to help advise and assist local troops in combating Islamic State, who in 2014 seized swathes of territory in both countries. Islamic State is far from the formidable force it once was, but militant cells have survived across parts of northern Iraq and northeastern Syria.
SYMBOLISM
Austin's trip is also about supporting Sudani's push back
against Iranian influence in the country, former officials and
experts said.
Iranian-backed militia in Iraq have occasionally targeted
U.S. forces and its embassy in Baghdad with rockets. The United
States and Iran came close to full-blown conflict in 2020 after
U.S. forces killed Iran's Revolutionary Guards commander General
Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike.
"I think that Iraqi leaders share our interest in Iraq not
becoming a playground for conflict between the United States and
Iran," a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said.
Austin met Sudani and president of the Iraqi Kurdistan
Region, Nechirvan Barzani, amid a long-running dispute over
budget transfers and oil revenue sharing between the national
government and Erbil, as well as the lingering acrimony between
the two main Kurdish parties running the semi-autonomous region
of Kurdistan.
"Erbil and Baghdad must work together for the good of all
Iraqis and Kurdish leaders must put aside their divisions and
come together to build a secure and prosperous Iraqi Kurdish
region," Austin said following his meeting with Barzani.
Austin also condemned Iran's "repeated cross border
attacks," on Iraq.
Last year, Tehran fired missiles at bases of Kurdish groups
in northern Iraq it accuses of involvement in protests against
its restrictions on women, displacing hundreds of Iranian Kurds
and killing some.
Former President George W. Bush’s administration cited its
belief that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s government held
weapons of mass destruction to justify the decision to invade
Iraq. U.S. and allied forces later found that such stockpiles
did not exist.
Between 185,000 and 208,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in
the war, according to the Costs of War Project by the Watson
Institute for International Studies at Brown University.
Austin, a former head of all U.S. forces in the Middle East,
said in 2011 that the United States had achieved its military
objectives in Iraq.
But under former President Barack Obama, the United States
sent thousands of troops back into Iraq and Syria three years
later to bolster the fight against Islamic State.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali in Baghdad, additional reporting by
Amina Ismail in Erbil; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Angus MacSwan,
Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Sharon Singleton)
