Pentagon: U.S. Soldiers Are Not Sharing An iraqi Base With Iranian-Backed Shiite Militia Units

Bloomberg: Pentagon Says No Shiite Militia Unit Shares Iraq Base With U.S.

The U.S. military isn’t sharing its new training base in Iraq’s Anbar province with Iranian-backed Shiite militia units, a Pentagon spokesman said.

In fact, the U.S. required Shiite units to leave the Taqqadum base between Fallujah and Ramadi as a precondition for using it to expand training of Iraqi security forces and encourage the integration of Sunni tribal militia, Army Colonel Steve Warren, the spokesman, told reporters Tuesday.

It was “fine to have a handful of liaisons there, but one of our conditions that we wanted met was that the actual units moved off the base,” Warren said.

Some Iraqi Shiite militia members there are serving in a liaison capacity to the Iraqi government, and they number “in low double-digits,” but “it’s not a unit,” Warren said.

WNU Editor: On the one hand the Pentagon is saying that there are no Iranian-backed Shiite militia units at the base .... and then they are saying that there are are some Iranian backed Shiite militia members .... but it is not a unit. This is classic "Pentagon double speak". On a side note .... the above CNN video is an eye-opener on how difficult the situation must be at this base .... especially for the Sunni volunteer fighters.