Defense Secretary James Mattis will present a plan to NATO allies at a meeting next month pressing them to contribute a significant amount of troops to be stationed in Iraq, The Washington Times reports.
The push, which has yet to be made public, is part of a new plan to shift the U.S. into an advisory role in Iraq, with a focus on making sure Iraq's security forces can handle any extremists still in the country, whether they are connected to the terror group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or not.
According to Pentagon officials, the plan is not based on a renewed threat from ISIS or a worsening situation in the country, it is an attempt to mirror the situation in Afghanistan, where 38 different countries have contributed about 6,500 troops to support 8,000 U.S. service members who've been there since 2014.
In Iraq, although 75 nations have joined the U.S.-led coalition, and 23 nations deployed 9,000 troops total to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the majority of troops, about 5,000, are American. The United Kingdom, by contrast, has contributed about 600 troops.
Although Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's administration has supported the U.S.-led coalition's work, the success of political rival Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric who rose to international prominence after leading the Mahdi Army against U.S. forces in Iraq back in 2004, in recent parliamentary elections has some doubting whether Abadi can win enough support for the agreements to allow U.S. and NATO forces to stay in Iraq.
Sadr said in a statement Wednesday that "the U.S. is an invader country," and accused it of interfering with the country's national security, according to The Washington Times.
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