Iraqi PM: US Combat Troops Not Necessary
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MILITARY VIRUS OUTBREAK FACES Massive ship Amid latest surge, Country star blaze prompts states scale back Wallen: Use of Navy reforms virus reporting slur ‘ignorant’ Page 4 Page 8 Page 14 US hoops stunned by France, 25-game win streak ends ›› Olympics, Page 22 stripes.com Volume 80 Edition 71 ©SS 2021 MONDAY,JULY 26, 2021 50¢/Free to Deployed Areas MILITARY Iraqi PM: US combat troops not Called necessary BY QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA AND SAMYA KULLAB Associated Press BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister says his country no long- to duty er requires American combat troops to fight Islamic State, but a formal time frame for their rede- National Guard brigade recounts ployment will depend on the out- obstacles of ‘biblical proportions’ come of talks with U.S. officials this week. during Middle East deployment Mustafa al-Kadhimi said Iraq will still ask for U.S. training and military intelli- gence gathering. His comments came in an ex- clusive inter- view with The Associated Press ahead of a planned trip to Washington, al-Kadhimi where he’s slat- ed to meet with President Joe Bi- den on Monday for a fourth round of strategic talks. “There is no need for any for- eign combat forces on Iraqi soil,” said al-Kadhimi, falling short of BY COREY DICKSTEIN announcing a deadline for a U.S. Stars and Stripes troop departure. Iraq’s security he 30th Armored Brigade Combat forces and army are capable of de- Team deployed to the Middle East fending the country without U.S.- in late 2019, expecting to train led coalition troops, he said. But al-Kadhimi said any with- alongside partner nations and T drawal schedule would be based support operations against remnants of on the needs of Iraqi forces, who the Islamic State. have shown themselves capable in But that changed instantly once they the last year of conducting inde- reached Kuwait in October of that year. pendent anti-ISIS missions. The National Guard unit did not expect a “The war against IS and the readiness of our forces requires a mission filled with epic flooding and oth- special timetable, and this de- er natural disasters, face-offs with Rus- pends on the negotiations that we will conduct in Washington,” he SEE DEPLOYMENT ON PAGE 4 said. The U.S. and Iraq agreed in Soldiers of the 30th Armored Brigade Combat April that the U.S. transition to a Team train in the Middle East in April 2020. train-and-advise mission meant THOMAS WHEELER/Task Force Spartan SEE TROOPS ON PAGE 5 PAGE 2 • STARS AND STRIPES • Monday, July 26, 2021 BUSINESS/WEATHER Tencent told to end exclusive music contracts EXCHANGE RATES Military rates South Korea (Won) 1,154.07 Associated Press Tencent the ability to get better within 30 days, the market regula- Switzerland (Franc) 0.9202 Euro costs (July 26) $1.15 Thailand (Baht) 32.94 BEIJING — Internet giant Ten- terms than competitors receive or tor said in a statement. The compa- Dollar buys (July 26) 0.8277 Turkey (New Lira) 8.5539 British pound (July 26) $1.34 cent was ordered by regulators to to limit the ability of rivals to enter ny is barred from requiring provid- Japanese yen (July 26) 107.00 (Military exchange rates are those available end exclusive contracts with music the market. ers to give better terms than com- South Korean won (July 26) 1,120.00 to customers at military banking facilities in the Commercial rates country of issuance for Japan, South Korea, Ger copyright holders, adding to in- Tencent Holdings Ltd., best petitors receive. many, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Bahrain (Dinar) 0.3770 For nonlocal currency exchange rates (i.e., pur creased enforcement of anti-mo- known abroad for its WeChat mess- Tencent promised on its social Britain (Pound) 1.3754 chasing British pounds in Germany), check with Canada (Dollar) 1.2575 your local military banking facility. Commercial nopoly and other rules as Beijing aging service, has a sprawling busi- media account to “conscientiously China (Yuan) 6.4814 rates are interbank rates provided for reference Denmark (Krone) 6.3178 tightens control over booming on- ness empire that includes games, abide by the decision.” Egypt (Pound) 15.6707 when buying currency. All figures are foreign line industries. music and video. It is among the Regulators are stepping up en- Euro 0.8495 currencies to one dollar, except for the British Hong Kong (Dollar) 7.7694 pound, which is represented in dollarsto Tencent controls more than 80% world’s 10 most valuable publicly forcement of anti-monopoly, data Hungary (Forint) 306.18 pound, and the euro, which is dollarstoeuro.) Israel (Shekel) 3.2729 of “exclusive music library re- traded companies, with a stock security, financial and other rules Japan (Yen) 110.56 INTEREST RATES sources” following its 2016 acquisi- market value of $680 billion. against Tencent, e-commerce giant Kuwait (Dinar) 0.3009 Norway (Krone) 8.8704 Prime rate 3.25 tion of China Music Group, the State In order to “restore market com- Alibaba Group and other compa- Philippines (Peso) 50.21 Interest Rates Discount rate 0.75 Poland (Zloty) 3.89 Federal funds market rate 0.09 Administration for Market Regula- petition,” Tencent must end exclu- nies that dominate entertainment, Saudi Arabia (Riyal) 3.7511 3month bill 0.05 tion said Saturday. It said that gives sive music copyright contracts retail and other industries. Singapore (Dollar) 1.3596 30year bond 1.92 WEATHER OUTLOOK MONDAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST MONDAY IN EUROPE TUESDAY IN THE PACIFIC Misawa 74/68 Kabul 98/61 Seoul 90/75 Baghdad 118/89 Osan Tokyo Kandahar Drawsko 91/73 83/73 109/68 Mildenhall/ Pomorskie Busan Lakenheath 80/62 82/75 74/59 Iwakuni Kuwait City Bahrain 81/76 111/97 Zagan Sasebo 98/92 Brussels Ramstein 79/63 85/76 Guam 67/61 77/53 84/81 Riyadh Lajes, 112/84 Doha Azores Stuttgart 110/93 70/67 73/61 Pápa Aviano/ 93/71 Vicenza 79/66 Naples 92/74 Okinawa Morón 80/77 91/67 Sigonella Rota 98/68 The weather is provided by the Djibouti 75/69 Souda Bay American Forces Network Weather Center, 93/80 78/75 2nd Weather Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. TODAY IN STRIPES American Roundup ...... 10 Classified .................... 13 Comics .........................16 Crossword ................... 16 Faces .......................... 14 Opinion ........................ 11 Sports .................... 17-24 Monday, July 26, 2021 • STARS AND STRIPES • PAGE 3 PACIFIC Sailors take on armed suspects in drills BY ALEX WILSON world gives security personnel Stars and Stripes and the base in general wider ex- YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, perience. Japan — Early Tuesday morning, “It helps us understand where a security forces team, weapons our training deficiencies are, and raised, entered the Navy Ex- it also helps train the public in change, searching for a knife- what might happen if something wielding suspect. were to happen,” he said. The action was a drill using Citadel Pacific, organized by blue, rubber versions of M4 car- Navy Installations Command and bines, all part of Citadel Pacific U.S. Pacific Fleet, is being con- 2021, five days of security-forces ducted at every naval installation exercises this summer at Navy in- in the theater — Navy Region Ja- stallations across the region. pan, Navy Region Hawaii, Navy At Yokosuka, a combination of Region Korea and Joint Region security teams cleared the ex- Marianas. change before finding and appre- Navy Region Japan held its hending someone playing the role training from Monday through of suspect. The teams then moved Friday. Navy Regions Hawaii and to a second scenario at Yokosuka Korea will conduct their five-day Middle School, where they took exercises in August, and Joint Re- another roleplaying suspect into gion Marianas will hold its drills in custody and discovered a “suspi- early October. cious” package. Citadel Pacific provides a stan- “The importance of these drills DANIEL BETANCOURT/Stars and Stripes dardized metric to train and ex- is they’re realistic scenarios that Petty Officer 1st Class James Eggers detains an actor playing an armed suspect during the Citadel Pacific allow our patrolmen to get out of amine security measures across exercise inside the exchange at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on Tuesday. the routine patrols and respond to the area, said Cmdr. Benjamin something that doesn’t necessar- Waite, the integrated tactics train- “It benefits the entire installa- with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine art, Ga. ily happen a lot,” Master-at-Arms ing leader and public works offi- tion — and particularly our securi- Regiment, died at Camp Lejeune, On Dec. 4, 2019, Seaman Ga- Chief Petty Officer Andrew Bur- cer at Yokosuka. ty department — but it allows us to N.C., following a shooting-stab- briel Romero, a machinist’s mate nett, security training chief for the “It’s intended for the regions to train to defend the base against bing incident that occurred in on- auxiliary fireman assigned to the base, said in an interview Tues- exercise their installations at the both internal and external base housing. Another man, a Ma- fast-attack submarine USS Co- day. same time in a consistent way,” he threats,” he said. rine’s spouse, was also killed in the lumbia, shot three civilians at Burnett, the antiterrorism told Stars and Stripes on Tuesday. Threats on U.S. military bases, incident, but his identity wasn’t Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in training team leader during the “It’s a coordinated effort to ensure such as active shooters or knife- released at the request of next of Hawaii before turning the gun on exercise, said routine training of- consistent training is occurring.” wielding assailants, aren’t un- kin.