US-Trained Iraqi Forces Add Muscle To War Against Islamic State Terrorists - Esper

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published October 23, 2019 | 09:04 PM

The training United States has been providing to the Iraqi military helps protect the region from a re-emergence of the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia), which until recently ruled vast swaths of northern Iraq, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a series of statements after meetings with Iraqi and US officials on Wednesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd October, 2019) The training United States has been providing to the Iraqi military helps protect the region from a re-emergence of the Islamic State terror group (banned in Russia), which until recently ruled vast swaths of northern Iraq, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a series of statements after meetings with Iraqi and US officials on Wednesday.

"My meeting with Iraq Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari was very productive," Esper said via Twitter. "I stressed the US commitment to defend the international rules-based order, the continued development of the Iraqi Security Forces and our combined efforts to defeat ISIS [Islamic State]."

Esper issued a separate tweet summarizing his meeting with US Ambassador Matthew Tueller and the deputy commander of the US-led coalition in Iraq, Lieutenant General Pat White.

"Operation Inherent Resolve is a critical mission and the work they are doing to enable Iraq Security Forces through the train, advise and assist mission is invaluable to the defeat of ISIS [Islamic State]," Esper said.

At its peak, the Islamic State ruled more than 34,000 square miles in Syria and Iraq as a self-declared Islamic Caliphate, which enslaved or executed thousands of civilians. By late 2017, a US led-coalition had captured all Islamic State territory, forcing the terror group to resort to insurgent tactics such as suicide bombings.

Esper's tweets made no mention of the movement of US troops from Syria to Iraq following President Donald Trump's decision to all but end US military participation in the Syrian conflict.

The Iraqi government has said that US forces withdrawing from Syria would not be allowed to set up shop in western Iraq.