US envoy claims ‘ISIS still a threat’ in Iraq as Washington looks to delay withdrawal
The US has covertly supported ISIS in Iraq and uses its presence to justify keeping US troops in the country
ISIS still poses a threat in Iraq, and the US-led military's work with Iraq to fully defeat the organization is not done, US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski claimed in an interview with Reuters published on 25 March.
Romanowski's claim contradicts the statements of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who has emphasized that ISIS is no longer a threat in Iraq and that US forces are not needed.
In 2010, ISIS's predecessor, the Islamic State of Iraq, had been defeated. But US planners released leaders of the group from Bucca Prison in Iraq. This revived the organization and allowed it to launch an insurgency against the government of Bashar al-Assad in neighboring Syria in 2011.
US support for ISIS continued as it captured large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, including as the organization conquered the cities of Raqqa and Mosul. The US then used the threat of ISIS to justify returning US troops to Iraq with the permission of the Iraqi government. The US military also occupied large parts of northeast Syria previously controlled by ISIS.
"We both assess ISIS [Islamic State] is still a threat here, much, much diminished, but nevertheless, our work is essentially not done, and we want to ensure that Iraqi forces can continue the enduring defeat of ISIS," Romanowski said at the US embassy in Baghdad.
She was speaking after ISIS's Afghan branch, ISIS-K, claimed responsibility for Friday's attack at a rock concert near Moscow, in which 137 people were killed.
"As this event reminds us, ISIS is a common terrorist enemy that must be defeated everywhere," she said in an additional comment after the interview.
"That's why the United States and Iraq share a commitment to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS, including by working together to shape the future of a strong bilateral US–Iraq security partnership."
The Russian foreign ministry accused the US of being behind the attack, using ISIS as a proxy.
ISIS also claimed responsibility for an attack in Iran in January at the tomb of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the US in 2020. The attack came amid a broader Israeli assassination campaign of Hamas and Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon.
Iraqi Prime Minister Sudani will travel to Washington next month to meet US President Joe Biden to discuss the future of the US troop presence and Iraqi reliance on Iranian natural gas for electricity generation, which Washington seeks to end.
Reuters noted that while US troops are supposedly in Iraq to counter ISIS, "Western officials say the US and its allies also see its presence in Iraq as a check on Iranian influence."
Earlier this year, US drone strikes killed several members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which enjoy support from Iran and seek to expel US forces from Iraq. The US currently has some 2,500 troops in the country.