Story thread · 6 reports / 6 sources

Don't let Iran-backed militias to set the clock on America's exit from Iraq

thenationalnews.com · 14dShare

On September 30, the last American and coalition troops are scheduled to leave Iraq, ending a military presence that began in 2003. Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi calls the date “fixed and final” . October 1, he says, will open a new chapter in which Iraq exercises full sovereignty over its own soil. It is a stirring line. It also collides with the facts on the ground. Mr Al Zaidi has tied two promises to the single date. The coalition departs by September 30, and every armed group is supposed to place its weapons in the state’s control by the same day. One of those deadlines is real, the other is theatre. And a single arrest this month shows which is which. On August 17, the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service force, the most capable and most heavily US-mentored unit, detained Abbas Al Yaqoubi , the reconnaissance chief of Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba and an intelligence official in the Popular Mobilisation Forces, on suspicion of involvement in recent drone strikes against neighbouring count

First report: Iraqi factions propose weapons 'freeze' instead of disarmament — newarab.com, 16d