{"id":31807,"date":"2020-01-07T08:34:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T05:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.163.207.100\/~timesku1\/news\/?p=31807"},"modified":"2020-01-07T08:37:09","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T05:37:09","slug":"us-military-has-no-plans-to-leave-iraq-us-defence-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timeskuwait.com\/news\/us-military-has-no-plans-to-leave-iraq-us-defence-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"US military has no plans to leave Iraq: US defence chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Defence officials call letter about preparations for a US military withdrawal from Iraq &#8216;a mistake&#8217;.<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n<p>The\u00a0United States\u00a0has no plans to pull out militarily from\u00a0Iraq, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Pentagon reporters on Monday, following reports of a US military letter about preparations for a withdrawal.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s been no decision whatsoever to leave Iraq,&#8221; Esper said, when asked about the letter, adding there had also been no plans issued to prepare to leave.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s been no decision made to leave Iraq. Period,&#8221; he told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>The letter, cited by news agencies and US media, was sent to Iraqi military by\u00a0US Marine Corps Brigadier General William H Seely III, commanding general of Task Force Iraq, the US-led military coalition against ISIL.<\/p>\n<p>A top US general told reporters that the letter was a poorly worded draft document meant to only underscore increased movement of forces.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Poorly worded, implies withdrawal. That&#8217;s not what&#8217;s happening,&#8221; US Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a group of reporters, stressing there was no withdrawal being planned.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This was a mistake from McKenzie,&#8221; Milley told reporters, referring to US Central Command commander General Frank McKenzie.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The long and short of it is: It&#8217;s an honest mistake by people trying to do the right things in highly dynamic situations, etc. It should not have been sent,&#8221; he said, adding that the unsigned document was a draft sent to get input from Iraqi officials.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It (the draft letter) was sent over to some key Iraqi military guys in order to get things coordinated for air movements, etc. Then it went from that guy&#8217;s hands to another guy&#8217;s hands and then it went to your hands. Now, it&#8217;s a kerfuffle.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Esper added the US was still committed to countering ISIL in Iraq, alongside US allies and partners.<\/p>\n<p>The reports came a day after the\u00a0Iraqi parliament urged the government\u00a0to expel foreign troops following the\u00a0US killing\u00a0of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.<\/p>\n<p>Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi told the US ambassador to Baghdad on Monday that both countries needed to implement the resolution, the premier&#8217;s office said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The US military has said there are about 5,000 US troops in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>Source: AL JAZEERA<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defence officials call letter about preparations for a US military withdrawal from Iraq &#8216;a mistake&#8217;. The\u00a0United States\u00a0has no plans to pull out militarily from\u00a0Iraq, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Pentagon reporters on Monday, following reports of a US military letter about preparations for a withdrawal. &#8220;There&#8217;s been no decision whatsoever to leave Iraq,&#8221; Esper said, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,19],"tags":[298,1394,3049],"class_list":["post-31807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-regional","tag-iraq","tag-us","tag-us-military"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>US military has no plans to leave Iraq: US defence chief - TimesKuwait<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timeskuwait.com\/news\/us-military-has-no-plans-to-leave-iraq-us-defence-chief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US military has no plans to leave Iraq: US defence chief - TimesKuwait\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Defence officials call letter about preparations for a US military withdrawal from Iraq &#8216;a mistake&#8217;. The\u00a0United States\u00a0has no plans to pull out militarily from\u00a0Iraq, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Pentagon reporters on Monday, following reports of a US military letter about preparations for a withdrawal. &#8220;There&#8217;s been no decision whatsoever to leave Iraq,&#8221; Esper said, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/timeskuwait.com\/news\/us-military-has-no-plans-to-leave-iraq-us-defence-chief\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TimesKuwait\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/timeskuwait\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-07T05:34:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-07T05:37:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/timeskuwait.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/US-military.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"TimesAdmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thetimesq8\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@thetimesq8\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"TimesAdmin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timeskuwait.com\\\/news\\\/us-military-has-no-plans-to-leave-iraq-us-defence-chief\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timeskuwait.com\\\/news\\\/us-military-has-no-plans-to-leave-iraq-us-defence-chief\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"TimesAdmin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timeskuwait.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1f7ebf5aeb4e2934be640ecead337f70\"},\"headline\":\"US military has no plans to leave Iraq: US defence chief\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-07T05:34:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-07T05:37:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timeskuwait.com\\\/news\\\/us-military-has-no-plans-to-leave-iraq-us-defence-chief\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":397,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timeskuwait.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timeskuwait.com\\\/news\\\/us-military-has-no-plans-to-leave-iraq-us-defence-chief\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timeskuwait.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/US-military.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Iraq\",\"US\",\"US military\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Featured\",\"Regional\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timeskuwait.com\\\/news\\\/us-military-has-no-plans-to-leave-iraq-us-defence-chief\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timeskuwait.com\\\/news\\\/us-military-has-no-plans-to-leave-iraq-us-defence-chief\\\/\",\"name\":\"US military has no plans to leave Iraq: US defence chief - 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