Reports Monday that the U.S. planned to withdraw forces from Iraq were turned on their heads hours later when U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters there were no plans to pull up stakes.
‘There’s been no decision whatsoever to leave Iraq, period,’ Esper said, adding that he and his staff were ‘trying to figure out’ the meaning of a letter signed by a brigadier general that suggested the opposite.
‘There are no plans to leave,’ he emphasized, suggesting discussion of a massive troop movement may just be a signal that forces are being repositioned inside Iraq’s borders.
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