Anti-ISIS coalition suspending its operations, but this will have consequences

Dr Mubarak Ahmed

The U.S.-led international coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) announced on March 19 that it would change its troop deployment map and suspend the training of Iraqi security forces for 60 days.

The coalition took the new decisions in a preventive move against the coronavirus.

The U.S. said also that it would withdraw from three military bases in Iraq, out of eight military bases where U.S. troops have presence.

The U.K. and France also announced that they would pull some of their troops out of Iraq. France has 200 troops in Iraq. Some of these troops participate in the training of Iraqi security forces and others advise the Iraqi army command.

The French troop pullout coincides with the launch of efforts by French President, Emmanuel Macron, against the coronavirus. The French president considered his country to be in a health war against the virus.

Debate

Around 82 states participate in the international coalition against ISIS, formed in 2014. The coalition aims to crack down on this terrorist group and sabotage its global spread.

Nevertheless, the role the coalition plays in Iraq is coming under scrutiny because, including among other reasons, of the ongoing protests in the country. The coronavirus outbreak and the assassination of Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani are also adding to all these reasons.

A growing number of Iraqis call for the withdrawal of the U.S. coalition from Iraq. The Iraqi parliament held an emergency session on January 5, following Soleimani’s assassination and asked the Iraqi government to cancel out a request for help it submitted earlier to the international coalition.

Nevertheless, some other Iraqis believe that the withdrawal of the coalition from Iraq would make security conditions in the Arab country worse and contribute to the return of ISIS.

Ramifications

The suspension of the operations of the coalition will have a number of ramifications. This suspension will affect the fight against ISIS negatively. Over the past years, the coalition succeeded in trimming the power of this terrorist organization by killing a large number of its key leaders and making it lose all its strongholds.

This encouraged former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi to declare the liberation of all his country’s territories from ISIS control in July 2017. On March 22, 2019, the U.S.-led coalition declared the end of the ISIS caliphate after the organization lost its last stronghold in Syria.