WASHINGTON
There are a number of Shia militias on al-Taqaddum air base in Anbar, Iraq, where the U.S. has recently been stationed to train Sunni tribes, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday.
“There are some individuals who are serving in some sort of liaison capacity who are members of Shia militias,” Col. Steve Warren, Pentagon spokesman told reporters.
Describing their number as a "low double digit" Warren said the liaisons and American forces are separated by space and have no interaction.
"The government of Iraq is helping coordination of this separation of these groups,” he added.
Noting that the Shia group is a part of popularly mobilized forces coordinated by the Iraqi government, Warren said the U.S. has applied "force protection measures to mitigate any risk from anything there”.
“There is an inherent risk already in the Anbar province, but I don’t believe that this handful of Shia militia poses an additional risk to our forces over there,” he said.
When the U.S. decided to send forces to al-Taqaddum, Warren noted one of the conditions was the removal of the Shia militia units from the base.
He said the units are not allowed to enter back and forth into Taqqaddum.
“As we conduct our broader force protection analysis, we felt that it was in our interest, in the interest of the safety of our personnel to have these militia units to move out of the al-Taqaddum airbase,” he added.
