Iraq is preparing for the possibility that Islamic State fighters could spill across the border from Syria, the country's foreign minister said Thursday. It comes just one day after the U.S. military formally ended its counter-ISIS mission in Iraq. Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told reporters in Washington, D.C. on Thursday that Baghdad is closely watching recent ISIS activity in neighboring Syria, and warned that fighters crossing into Iraq could once again pose a threat to the country's security.
"We are worried about ISIS activities inside Syria," Hussein said, adding that Iraqi forces were preparing to confront any movement toward the border. Still, he stressed that Baghdad believes its military can now handle the terrorist group without the large U.S.-led coalition presence that helped defeat ISIS's self-declared caliphate. ISIS POISED TO EXPLOIT HISTORIC US IRAQ EXIT, TERROR GROUP 'ACTIVELY WAITING IN THE GAPS,' EXPERT WARNS "If they would be capable to cross the border, that would be once again a threat to our security," Hussein said.
"We are preparing ourselves – if there will be any movement from inside Iraq — to fight them and to defeat them." The warning came just after the departure of the final U.S. forces under Operation Inherent Resolve on Wednesday. US FACES ANOTHER MAJOR MIDDLE EAST TROOP WITHDRAWAL, BUT THREAT REMAINS Trump hailed the withdrawal as a victory over ISIS, saying the terrorist group had been "completely decimated." "We came to fight a caliphate, and there is no longer a caliphate, so we are going home," Trump said. "This day is a victory for the United States, a victory for Iraq, and a decisive victory over ISIS." But Hussein's warning came four days after Syrian authorities said they dismantled an ISIS cell operating across four provinces, arresting four of its leaders and seizing explosives that had been prepared for attacks.
The cell had carried out kidnappings and was involved in assassinations and planting explosive devices, according to Syrian security forces. U.S. officials assess that ISIS has been severely degraded and no longer poses a systemic threat to Iraq, but the terrorist group maintains scattered cells across Iraq and Syria. The Pentagon has said Iraqi forces are capable of suppressing the remaining threat themselves, while U.S. forces continue counter-ISIS operations in Syria aimed at preventing the group from reconstituting.
The withdrawal marked the end of a U.S. military mission in Iraq that, in different forms, stretched across more than two decades and reshaped American foreign policy. The 2003 invasion toppled Saddam Hussein but gave way to years of insurgency and sectarian violence. Nearly 4,500 U.S. service members were killed before American forces withdrew in 2011.
Three years later, U.S. troops returned as ISIS swept across large parts of Iraq and Syria, seizing Mosul and declaring a self-styled caliphate. The U.S. launched Operation Inherent Resolve in 2014, leading an international coalition that helped Iraqi forces reclaim the territory ISIS had captured. After the withdrawal, Iraq intends to pursue a bilateral security relationship with the U.S., though discussions on what that will look like have not yet begun.
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