Al Asad Air Base: US Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Saturday in the highest-level American trip since President Donald Trump ordered a pullback of US forces in Syria two months ago.
Pence and his wife Karen Pence flew into Iraq’s Al-Asad Air Base, from which US forces launched the operation in Syria last month that resulted in the death of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and spoke by phone with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi.
The Pences spent time mingling with the troops and helped serve them turkey dinners in an early celebration of Thanksgiving.
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The vice president also travelled to Erbil to meet Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani.
The meeting was meant to reassure the US allies in the fight against the Islamic State after Syrian Kurds suffered under a bloody Turkish assault last month following the US withdrawal.
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