US Force Levels in Afghanistan, Iraq Down to 2,500 Each: Acting Defense Secretary
The Pentagon has fully carried out US President Donald Trump’s order to draw down troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now has just 2,500 soldiers stationed in each country, Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller said in a pair of statements on Friday.
“Today, US force levels in Afghanistan have reached 2,500. Directed by President Trump, and as I announced on November 17, this drawdown brings US forces in the country to their lowest levels since 2001,” Miller said. “Today, the United States has reduced the force levels in Iraq to 2,500 as directed by President Trump.”
Three of the officers of Israel’s Mossad who were killed in an attack against a facility affiliated with the regime’s spy agency in northern Iraq have been identified.
An Iraqi lawmaker says the United Arab Emirates, at the request of the United States and the Israeli regime, is implementing a “destructive” agenda in Iraq to “destabilize the country.”
Pope Francis made a emphatic appeal for peaceful coexistence in Iraq on Sunday as he prayed for the country’s war dead amid the ruins of four demolished churches in Mosul, which suffered widespread destruction in the war against the ISIL terrorist group.