The United States recently removed air-defense systems from the Erbil area in northern Iraq, despite continued attacks by Iran and Iranian-backed militias against the capital of the Kurdish region, Kan News reported Thursday.
The move was carried out as part of an agreement between Washington and Baghdad calling for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq by the end of September. Kurdish officials, however, strongly objected to the timing.
A senior official in the Kurdish region said local leaders repeatedly asked the United States to delay removing the air-defense systems because of the Iranian attacks, but their requests were rejected.
“We told the Americans that this was very bad timing, given the situation in the region,” the official said.
The Kurds appear to have fallen lower on Washington’s list of priorities following President Trump’s disappointment over allegations that Kurdish forces used American-supplied weapons for internal regional purposes instead of launching an attack against the Iranian regime.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
