Washington praises the role of Iraqi forces and acknowledges achieving “victory” over ISIS with “great difficulty”.
Washington praises the role of Iraqi forces and acknowledges achieving “victory” over ISIS with “great difficulty”.
2026-01-06
Shafaq News – Baghdad / Erbil
The U.S. Embassy in Iraq congratulated the Iraqi army on Tuesday on the 105th anniversary of its founding, affirming the United States’ commitment to continuing to work with Iraqi security forces in support of a stable Iraq.
On this occasion, the embassy praised in a statement today “the service and sacrifices of the Iraqi security forces, including the Peshmerga forces, in defending Iraq and protecting its sovereignty.”
She added that “the United States recognizes the vital role of those forces in achieving the hard-won battlefield victory over ISIS, and in supporting a stable Iraq.”
The embassy affirmed America’s commitment “to working with Iraqi security forces as Iraq continues to build a safer and more prosperous future for its people.”
Iraqis celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the army on January 6th of each year. On this occasion, official working hours are suspended in government institutions and schools throughout the country.
The first force in the Iraqi army was established and was called the “Imam Musa al-Kadhim Regiment” on January 6, 1921.
The Iraqi army has developed throughout its history and participated in multiple wars and conflicts, such as the 1948 war that followed the declaration of the establishment of the “State of Israel” in Palestine and the October War of 1973. It was also involved in suppressing internal revolutions, the most important of which was in the Kurdistan region, which lasted for decades.
During the 1980s, the Iraqi army reached an advanced ranking, after being listed as the sixth strongest army in the world, during the war with Iran, which lasted for eight years.
But that classification did not last long, after Saddam Hussein led the army towards the invasion of Kuwait, from which he was forced to withdraw after about five months under the blows of the international coalition led by the United States in 1991.
However, the end of the former Iraqi army came after the US forces occupied Iraq in the 2003 war and the US Coalition Provisional Authority chief Paul Bremer issued a decision to dissolve the Iraqi army.
The Iraqi army was re-established after the war on somewhat different foundations, as it was built on the basis of volunteering only, after it had previously relied on compulsory conscription, as well as voluntary enlistment, and the high salaries paid to soldiers and officers became an attraction to join the armed forces.
The current Iraqi army is mainly responsible for maintaining internal security, and its numbers have increased in recent years to hundreds of thousands, but it suffers from a lack of armament and equipment, especially with regard to protecting its airspace.
shafaq.com
