Small Wars Journal

After a Buildup to Counter Iran, U.S. Troops Begin Leaving Mideast

Tue, 03/10/2020 - 8:32am

After a Buildup to Counter Iran, U.S. Troops Begin Leaving Mideast by Nancy A. Youssef and Gordon Lubold - Wall Street Journal

The U.S. military has begun to draw small numbers of troops out of the Middle East after concluding that the threat of reprisal attacks from Iran or its proxies has subsided, military officials said.

About 1,000 combat troops who had deployed to Kuwait days after the Jan. 3 strike that killed a top Iranian commander, Maj. Gen.Qassem Soleimani, have left the region over the past two weeks, the officials said. An additional 2,000 members of the same brigade are expected to leave the region in the weeks ahead, the officials said.

They are the first departures of ground forces since the increase in hostilities in January, signaling a tenuous confidence by U.S. officials that the immediate tension in the region has begun to decline…

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