Visit comes as Iraq commemorates 20 years of US invasion of Saddam Hussein’s regime
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday for a surprise visit to “reaffirm the strategic partnership” between the United States and Iraq, he announced on his Twitter account. The visit comes at a time when Iraq commemorates twenty years of the American invasion against the regime of Saddam Hussein. The offensive, launched on March 20, 2003 by American troops backed by an international coalition, opened one of the bloodiest pages in Iraqi history.
“Landing in Baghdad. I am here to reaffirm the strategic partnership between the United States and Iraq as we move towards a more secure, stable and sovereign Iraq,” the Pentagon chief said on his Twitter account.
Baghdad has been the scene of an intense diplomatic ballet in recent weeks. Iraqi leaders successively received the heads of diplomacy from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia, before the visit in early March of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. A staunch ally of the influential Iranian sponsor, Baghdad nevertheless retains very strong ties with Washington, particularly on the military level. Alliances that sometimes require Iraqi leaders to engage in a delicate balancing act.
American troops are still deployed in Iraq as part of the international coalition led by Washington to fight against the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group. Routed in Iraq in 2017, the jihadists continue to claim deadly attacks in the country from time to time and the coalition remains mobilized to prevent their resurgence. At the end of 2021, Iraq announced the “end of the combat mission” of the international coalition, still deployed on Iraqi soil to pursue a training and advisory role.
