U.S. Strike in Iraq Sends Key Counterterror Operation Into Tailspin

The Pentagon is insistent that the Israel-Hamas war not spill over into the wider Middle East region. But already, the recent spate of attacks against American troops in Iraq and Syria—and the Biden administration’s response to them—are threatening to dislodge a precarious counterterrorism mission.

Iranian-backed proxies have carried out hundreds of attacks against U.S. entities and troops in the Middle East ever since Israel launched its bombardment against Gaza. In response, last week, the U.S. killed an Iran-backed militia leader, known as “Abu Taqwa,” in Baghdad.

Though the Pentagon claims the retaliatory strike that killed both Abu Taqwa—a high-ranking commander of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba (HAN)—and another member of HAN, was in self-defense, the Iraqi prime minister is now threatening to wind down the U.S. counter-ISIS mission in the country. A recent statement from the prime minister’s office said that Iraq is “setting the date for the start of the bilateral committee to put arrangements to end the presence of the international coalition forces in Iraq permanently.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.