The Iraqi Parliament voted to kick US forces out of the country and the American-led coalition has suspended all operations targeting the Islamic State group, in continued fallout from the recent killing of Iran's top general in Baghdad. The Jan. 5 resolution is a public rebuke of the US, but it is not legally binding. The government must still officially rescind the invitation to US forces to conduct anti-ISIS operations in the country. Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who spoke publicly in support of the resolution, resigned in November and is serving in a “caretaker” role, but he is not authorized to enact new laws.
News that the US killed Iranian Quds Force commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a targeted strike early Jan. 3 reverberated across Capitol Hill, as lawmakers acknowledged the threat one of Iran’s top military officials posed to American assets but were publicly cautious about the possible ripple effects of his death.
Three Americans—one service member and two contractor—were killed and two more US troops were injured in an al-Shabab attack on an airstrip in Kenya on Jan. 5. Al-Shabab briefly breached the walls of the Camp Simba airstrip in Manda Bay using indirect and small arms fire in an early morning attack, US Africa Command said in a statement. Six contractor-operated aircraft were damaged “to some degree,” according to AFRICOM.
Brig. Gen. Douglas Coppinger, US Cyber Command's director of intelligence, has been chosen to serve as deputy chief of the National Security Agency's Central Security Service, the Air Force announced Jan. 2. Brig. Gen. David Miller Jr., who currently leads plans, programs, and financial management at Headquarters Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB, Colo., has been selected to serve as Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett’s senior military assistant in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, according to the same press release.
