France will keep troops in Iraq for "anti-terrorism operations" so long as the Iraqi government needs their assistance, and no matter what the United States decides to do, French President Emmanual Macron has announced.
“No matter what choices the Americans make, we will maintain our presence in Iraq to fight against terrorism,” the French president said, speaking at a news conference Saturday while attending a regional security summit hosted by Baghdad.
Macron added that Paris has “the operational capacity to ensure this presence.”
Earlier in the day, Macron told Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi that “we all know that we must not lower our guard, because Daesh remains a threat, and I know that the fight against these terrorist groups is a priority of your government.”
Al-Kadhemi called France a “key partner” to Baghdad “in the war against terrorism.”
France has about 160 troops stationed in Iraq who were deployed there under Operation Chammal in 2014. France carried out a series of airstrikes against Daesh forces in Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2017, and took part in the 2016 operation to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul. French forces were also illegally deployed in eastern Syria but were forced to leave the country in 2019 following a Turkish offensive against US-allied Syrian Kurdish forces. One French paratrooper was killed and two have been wounded in Operation Chammal to date.
Iraq and France have had a turbulent relationship in recent decades, with Paris backing Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s war of aggression against Iran in the 1980s, but then taking part in the US-led coalition’s intervention in Kuwait and Iraq in 1990-1991. In 2003, France opposed the US invasion of Iraq.
US Combat Troops Given Deadline to Leave
Prime Minister al-Kadhimi and US President Joe Biden reached an agreement in July under which all US combat forces will be required to leave Iraq by the end of 2021, with a limited contingent of non-combat troops allowed to stay for a “training, advising, assisting and intelligence-sharing role.”
The US has already slashed troop numbers in Iraq by more than half since 2020, with over 2,800 soldiers withdrawn between March 2020 and January 2021 in the aftermath of the unprovoked assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020. Soleimani’s killing prompted Iran to launch missile strikes against two US bases in Iraq, and Baghdad-allied militias have launched hundreds of rocket, mortar and improvised explosive device (IED) attacks targeting US facilities and supply convoys since that time. Iraq’s parliament demanded the withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq following Soleimani’s death, and Shia militias have warned that they will not stop attacking American forces until all US personnel, not just combat troops, are gone.
* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.