Coalition chief meets Iraqi Kurdistan president as Baghdad agitates against US presence

WASHINGTON — The top commander of the US-led military coalition in Iraq and Syria met with the president of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, in Erbil on Tuesday as pressure builds in Baghdad to put a timeline on the eventual departure of coalition forces in the country. 

US Army Maj. Gen. Joel Vowell met with Barzani to discuss recent drone attacks by Iran-backed militias in the Kurdistan Region as well as efforts to protect coalition forces and diplomatic officials in Iraq, according to Barzani’s office.

Why it matters: Vowell’s meeting with Barzani comes less than a week after a US drone strike killed a senior Iran-backed militia in Baghdad, threatening to spark a new row with Iraq’s central government.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani last week said he would initiate diplomatic proceedings to begin the process of setting a deadline for the eventual withdrawal of coalition forces, of which there are more than 2,500 in Iraq in the wake of the multinational US-led campaign against the Islamic State group.