Iran’s pro-government Fars News was excited on Saturday to report that the Iraqis are fully in control of Camp Taji, where the US-led Coalition once had a major presence.

The base has been attacked a dozen times by rockets fired by pro-Iranian militias and three coalition personnel were killed there in March. The US handed over facilities to the Iraqis on August 23. Iran celebrated this on Saturday with the article about the handover.

The article highlighted Brig. General Tahseen Khafaji, spokesman for the Iraqi Joint Operations Command. The article was also designed to prevent rumors that other countries besides the US were present. This was a big base for the US and anti-ISIS coalition and some 2,000 personnel were at the base.

Now the US says one third of the troops in Iraq will leave, according to the Wall Street Journal. Since the US had 5,000 personnel in Iraq, clearly the closure of Taji will reduce that force, even if some are re-positioned to more friendly areas, such as the Kurdistan Region.
Rumors in Iraq said that despite the US leaving that Saudi Arabia had troops at Taji. This is part of rumors designed to undermine Iraq-Saudi relations as Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi wants to work with Iraq. Kadhimi met the Saudi foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan, on August 28. Pro-Iran groups in Iraq opposed the meeting.


Tahseen has denied the rumors that Saudis are at Taji. Only Iraqis are present, he said. “Non-Iraqi forces are not at the base and the media should be more careful reporting the news,” he indicated, reports say. Taji is 80km north of Baghdad. Tens of thousands of Iraqis were trained by the coalition over the years. Iranian media says that the US left Taji because it was afraid of more attacks. The US says it was a planned handover.

Fars News says that the US withdrawal became serious and became a demand from parliament by groups from the Hashd al-Sha’abi after the US targeted Kataib Hezbollah in December and March following rocket attacks.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN
JSPost