US Secretary of Defense arrives on unexpected visit to Iraq – Reuters

The visit comes as Iraq marks the 20th anniversary of the US invasion which aimed to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime under the false pretense that Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction. The offensive, launched on March 20, 2003 by American troops with the support of the international coalition, opened one of the bloodiest pages in Iraqi history, leading to the death of tens of thousands of inhabitants. The United States has wreaked havoc and destruction in one of the most prosperous countries in the Arab world and continues to talk of “saving Iraq from a tyrannical regime”.
Baghdad nevertheless maintains very strong ties with Washington, particularly on the military level, specifies AFP. US troops are still stationed in Iraq as part of the US-led international coalition to fight Islamic State militants (the group is banned in the Russian Federation).Defeated in Iraq in 2017, jihadists continue to report deadly attacks in the country from time to time. At the end of 2021, Iraq announced the “end of the combat mission” of the international coalition, but the Americans and their allies are still in Iraq “to carry out training and advisory functions”.