PM Sudani: Iraq No Longer Needs Foreign Combat Forces

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani during his meeting with Armed Forces leaders and commanders. (Media Office of the Prime Minister)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani during his meeting with Armed Forces leaders and commanders. (Media Office of the Prime Minister)
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PM Sudani: Iraq No Longer Needs Foreign Combat Forces

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani during his meeting with Armed Forces leaders and commanders. (Media Office of the Prime Minister)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani during his meeting with Armed Forces leaders and commanders. (Media Office of the Prime Minister)

Iraq no longer required the presence of "foreign combat forces" on its territories to combat ISIS, announced Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Monday.

Sudani was speaking during a meeting with commanders of the Armed Forces and Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), members of the Ministries of Interior and Defense, and the military forces that took part in the war against the ISIS terrorist organization.

ISIS still commands between 5,000 and 7,000 members across its former stronghold in Syria and Iraq, and its fighters pose the most severe terrorist threat in Afghanistan today, a UN panel of experts told the Security Council.

"Presently, Iraq does not require the presence of foreign combat units within its borders," Sudani said, announcing that there are ongoing discussions with the anti-ISIS international coalition partners to chart the course for future cooperation and collaboration against the group.

He reiterated the unwavering commitment of the Armed Forces to their professional, constitutional, and legal duties and underscored their role in fostering development, consolidating security, maintaining civil peace, and safeguarding a dignified life for all Iraqi citizens.

The liberation of Mosul was one of the critical battles that defied expectations at a time when everyone expected that the matter was settled in favor of the ISIS terrorist state and the end of the state of Iraq, said Sudani.

He asserted that ISIS did not only target Iraq, but rather, it was a giant conspiracy that targeted countries in the region.

Sudani noted that after the liberation from ISIS, a renewed sense of unity arose among Iraqis, overcoming the sectarian violence and division from previous years.

Sudani became Iraq's prime minister at the end of October 2022, and since then, most of the attacks on army camps and convoys of logistical support for the international coalition forces stopped.

Last June, the foreign ministers of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. They underscored the need to enhance civilian-led counterterrorism and counter-terrorist financing capabilities in Iraq in the long term, along with stabilization efforts in areas liberated from ISIS.



Hezbollah Says it Struck Explosives Factory South of Haifa

A street in Haifa in northern Israel is nearly deserted as Yom Kippur begins at sunset on October 11, 2024. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
A street in Haifa in northern Israel is nearly deserted as Yom Kippur begins at sunset on October 11, 2024. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
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Hezbollah Says it Struck Explosives Factory South of Haifa

A street in Haifa in northern Israel is nearly deserted as Yom Kippur begins at sunset on October 11, 2024. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
A street in Haifa in northern Israel is nearly deserted as Yom Kippur begins at sunset on October 11, 2024. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Saturday that it launched a salvo of missiles at an Israeli military base to the south of the city of Haifa.
Hezbollah fighters were "targeting the explosives factory there with a salvo of... missiles," the group said in a statement.
Air raid sirens sounded in northern Israel, with the Israeli military saying it had intercepted a projectile launched from Lebanon.
This came as the Israeli military made more evacuation orders to southern Lebanon residents.
The military has ordered residents of 22 southern Lebanese villages to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, according to a statement released on Saturday.

Lebanese authorities said Friday that 60 people were killed and 168 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,229 dead and 10,380 wounded.
Israel has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion at the border, after a year of exchanges of fire.