ISIS looking for 'opportunistic attacks' -U.S. commander
STORY: During an interview with Reuters in Baghdad, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Matthew McFarlane discussed current security threats posed by IS remnants in Iraq and Syria on Saturday (March 18).
"While they (Islamic State) are militarily defeated, we have a few, some ISIS fighters still at large, conducting opportunistic-type attacks" he said, adding that Islamic State militants had not carried out complex attacks in over a year, citing the January 2022 prison attack in Syria's Hasakah as the latest.
The United States led the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein, and withdrew in 2011. It came back in 2014 leading a multinational coalition to defeat Islamic State, which at its peak spanned a third of Iraq and Syria.
The Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) - assumed a non-combat role in Iraq in late 2021 and today, about 2,500 U.S. forces remain in Iraq on an advisory mission. Roughly 900 U.S. troops are deployed in Syria.
