Thursday, June 26, 2014

It is official: US troops in Iraq have the necessary immunity to commit war crimes

"The question of immunity for U.S. troops from Iraqi prosecution is a sensitive one. Iraqi refusal to grant immunity protection to American forces was the reason the United States withdrew all of its forces from Iraq at the end of 2011, instead of leaving a planned residual force of thousands of troops.

The immunity question was reopened when Obama announced last week that he would send up to 300 more U.S. “advisers” to assist the Iraqi military. U.S. officials worked throughout the weekend on a deal, which was finalized with Iraq on Monday morning.

It provides immunity for an unspecified number of military personnel, under the authority of the U.S. Central Command, “who are going to be temporarily present in Iraq in connection with the current crisis.”"