Iraqi PM Minimizes Islamic State Threat to Country

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani told top United States military and diplomatic brass on Sunday that the Islamic State (IS) group was no longer a threat to the country.  

Sudani claimed this during a meeting with Major General Kevin C. Leahy, who heads the US-led international military coalition deployed to combat IS, as well as American ambassador Alina Romanowski.  

Only a day ago, the US military announced that its forces participated in a significant raid against the Islamic State last Thursday in which seven US troops were wounded. 

The Islamic State, a self-proclaimed transnational caliphate comprised of loosely connected regional affiliate branches, rose to global prominence in the mid-2010s, largely on the back of its Iraqi Syrian branch, which took advantage of the ongoing Iraqi insurgency and Syrian civil war to conquer vast swaths of territory across the two countries.  

In September 2014, 87 countries formed the Global Coalition against IS. The diverse coalition liberated all IS-held territory by 2017 in Iraq and by 2019 in Syria.  

Following Sunday’s meeting, the prime minister’s office released a statement confirming that the talks centered on ending the coalition’s mandate and transitioning towards bilateral relations with the force’s constituent member states.  

Despite Sudan’s claim that IS had dwindled to a handful of fighters in dispersed hideouts, the statement reaffirmed Iraq’s commitment to collaborating with coalition partners on training and intelligence sharing, even after the mandate ended. 

There are 2,500 US military personnel deployed to Iraq. Baghdad has called for a withdrawal by September 2025.