Military Times

A recent, steady flow of rocket attacks in the past week on facilities housing U.S. troops in Iraq, including Camp Taji and Baghdad, may be attempts of Iranian-backed groups to pressure an American exit. But the region’s top military commander sees little effect.

“We’re not going to quit the region in response to Iranian pressure,” Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said on an Atlantic Council online interview with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.

These attacks come just days after a joint announcement by the Iraqi and U.S. governments on a plan to reduce troop numbers in the country in the coming months. That announcement came June 11 in a Department of State release and further negotiated details are expected in a meeting scheduled in July, an official said.

McKenzie recounted tit-for-tat attacks and provocations by Iran and the U.S. military and coalition responses, asserting that those responses were actually de-escalations of Iranian probing.

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