US starts withdrawing troops from Iraq after Daesh defeat

Al Asad Airbase (Iraq) - The Iraqi officials said the process has not officially begun.

American troops have started to draw down from Iraq following Baghdad's declaration of victory over the Daesh group last year, according to Western contractors at a US-led coalition base in Iraq.
Dozens of American soldiers have been transported from Iraq to Afghanistan on daily flights over the past week, along with weapons and equipment, the contractors said.
Two Iraqi officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the US-led coalition and the Iraqi government have reached an agreement to draw down troops in Iraq for the first time since the war against Daesh was launched over three years ago.
The Iraqi officials said the process has not officially begun.
However, an AP reporter at the Al Asad base in western Iraq saw troop movements reflecting the contractors' account of a drawdown. The contractors and the Iraqi officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations and declined to reveal the exact size of the drawdown.
"Continued coalition presence in Iraq will be conditions-based, proportional to the need and in coordination with the government of Iraq," coalition spokesman Army Col. Ryan Dillon told the AP when asked for comment.  One senior Iraqi official close to Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said 60 per cent of all American troops currently in country will be withdrawn, according to the initial agreement reached with the United States. The plan would leave a force of about 4,000 US troops to continue training the Iraqi military.
A Pentagon report released in November said there were 8,892 US troops in Iraq as of late September.  The US first launched airstrikes against the Daesh group in Iraq in August 2014. At the time the military intervention was described as "limited," but as Iraq's military struggled to roll back the extremists, the US-led coalition's footprint in the country steadily grew.  "We've had a recent change of mission and soon we'll be supporting a different theater of operations in the coming month," US Army 1^st Lt. William John Raymond told the AP at Al Asad.