With Iran confronting one of the deadliest outbreaks of the coronavirus outside China and more than two months passed since the American killing of Maj. Gen.Qassem Soleimani, the U.S. military has started to withdraw troops from the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
U.S. military officials told the Journal that some 1,000 combat troops who arrived in Kuwait days after the Soleimani assassination have left in the past two weeks, with 2,000 more expected to depart in the weeks ahead.
This would mark the majority of American troops who were deployed to the region in anticipation of massive reprisal attacks following the Soleimani killing and the subsequent Iranian retaliatory missile strike on two bases in Iraq hosting American troops that resulted in brain injuries that affected more than 100 U.S. soldiers.
Although Pentagon officials have concluded that the coronavirus crisis has affected Tehran’s ability to threaten American interests in the region, critics have warned that it could be too soon to conclude that Iran and its proxies won’t respond further.
“Everything we know about Iran and its past actions is that they tend to retaliate in a major way,” Andrew Miller, deputy director for policy at the Project on Middle East Democracy nonpartisan think tank, told the Journal. “It takes time to reconstitute, and I think the Iranians are calculating and waiting for the Americans to let their guard down.”
Central Command head Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, who is in charge of Middle East operations, is scheduled to testify before the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday regarding future plans for U.S. troops in the region.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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