“We’re not going to quit the region in response to Iranian pressure,” Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said on an Atlantic Council online interview with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.

These attacks come just days after a joint announcement by the Iraqi and U.S. governments on a plan to reduce troop numbers in the country in the coming months. That announcement came June 11 in a Department of State release and further negotiated details are expected in a meeting scheduled in July, an official said.

McKenzie recounted tit-for-tat attacks and provocations by Iran and the U.S. military and coalition responses, asserting that those responses were actually de-escalations of Iranian probing.

“While Iran may own the early steps of the escalatory ladder because the United States is attempting to avoid conflict. Iran needs to understand that the United States clearly owns the final steps in any escalatory ladder,” McKenzie said.

The four-star acknowledged that since the March rocket attacks at Camp Taji, Iraq, which wounded five, three of which were American, there had been a “pause” in Iranian attacks.

He attributed some of that to changes in U.S. force posture, protests by Iraqis against Iranian groups trying to influence their elections and the coronavirus pandemic.

But, with this past week he also said they were seeing a “spike” in attacks that has restarted.

A spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, Army Col. Myles Caggins told Military Times Thursday, providing context to the recent attacks and the status of U.S. forces in Iraq.

At present, there are about 5,200 U.S. troops in the country. Those troops are not conducting dismounted patrols, and do not bring heavy armor or other such assets. They are relying on Iraqi forces for protection but retain the ability and right to defend themselves if needed, he said.

That is crucial, Caggins said, because the mission of the troops there is to defeat ISIS and the rocket attacks and other such incidents draws attention from that mission.

The Iraqis, Caggins said, understand that and have been pursuing the source of attacks when detected and, in some cases, arresting perpetrators when found. At each attack they trace the launch and collect evidence for potential future criminal cases.

“These attacks are definitely a threat, we take them very seriously,” Caggins said.

A former senior military officer with U.S. Central Command told Military Times that the lack of response to the Jan. 8 rocket attack on al-Asad air base that caused more than 100 U.S. troops traumatic brain injury emboldened Iranians in their continued attacks.

The attack was a reaction to a U.S. airstrike, days earlier, that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.

“That leads the Iranians to think, ‘OK the redline isn’t that, so where is the redline?” he said. “We’re inconsistent. They’ll continue to push to see how far they can go until someone does something really hurtful to them.”

For a more nuanced picture, Caggins said that the most severe attack, in December at Kirkuk, had more than 30 rockets fired on the position, according to estimates. The March Camp Taji attack involved as many as 20 rockets.

Data provided by CJTF-OIR staff showed 21 indirect fire attacks on coalition bases for 2019, which included an estimated 107 rockets.

So far, in 2020, there have been 26 such attacks as of Thursday. Seven of those in June.

The most recent attacks have been in single digits, sometimes only one rocket, some have fallen as far as 1.5km from their target.

Primarily, what are believed to be proxy military forces backed by Iran are using 107mm Katyusha rockets. The Russian-made “Little Katy” rocket ranges are unguided and have been in use by the jihadi group Hezbollah for years. Smaller variants reach ranges of about 4km and can carry a 10-20kg warhead with high explosives, according to data compiled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Since the start of the year, U.S. troop numbers have decreased from nearly 6,000 to the current level of about 5,200. Those 800 troops are not scheduled to return.

Also, 1,200 coalition forces have left Iraq due to training halts because of the coronavirus pandemic, he said.

Also, the areas of U.S. troop dispersion and force posture has shifted.

That personnel has moved out of six locations: Mosul, Kirkuk, Al-Qa’im, Abu Ghraib, Habbaniyah and Qayyarah Airfield West.

Troops remain in Irbil, al-Assad, Camp Taji and the Baghdad cluster, or the Green Zone.

The U.S. Embassy in the Green Zone and Green Zone have also been the targets of attack over the past week.

“We don’t want to maintain a large force there,” McKenzie said. “We’re adjusting the force structure, it’s been larger, it’s getting smaller.”

The number will lower over time, as was stated in a June 11 joint statement released by the U.S. Department of State by both the governments of Iraq and the United States.

“On the security partnership, the two countries recognized that in light of significant progress towards eliminating the ISIS threat, over the coming months the U.S. would continue reducing forces from Iraq and discuss with the Government of Iraq the status of remaining forces as both countries turn their focus towards developing a bilateral security relationship based on strong mutual interests,” according to the statement.

Whatever the force structure becomes, the general said, it will depend on conditions in Iraq and what the Iraqi government wants.

“And I do not believe that number will be zero,” he said.

*Note: This article has been updated to correct an statement by Gen. McKenzie inaccurately reported by Military Times.

“We’ve gotten really, really good in this country at saying we support the military and we put on the flag pin and we thank them for their service and we give them that 10 percent coupon for appetizers at Chili’s but the truth is, structurally, we have not done enough to address the wounds of war that they come home with whether they be brain injury, PTS, or these toxic exposures,” the former host of The Daily Show said.

Stewart spoke Tuesday during a live event hosted by the Washington Post also featuring Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-California, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Derek Fronabarger with the Wounded Warrior Project and McClatchy reporter Tara Copp.

“I believe that in the way that oil and gas companies have to kick a 10 percent contingency on spills, I believe that war profiteers should kick in a 10 percent contingency plan so that Dereck and the VSOs and the frontline workers and veterans don’t have to always come hat in hand begging for money because their brothers and sisters are still dying from the things that they saw and faced in downrange war zones,” Stewart said.

While only Stewart pushed forward the notion of a fee paid for by defense companies, all participants featured on the nearly hourlong event roundly agreed that especially those facing an array of health complications from burn pit exposures need to be given ‘presumptive’ connection rather than suffer through lengthy delays that sometimes are not resolved when the veteran dies of complications.

VA officials have previously fought against efforts to presumptively link burn pit exposure to health problems, saying there’s a need for more research.

Tillis said he supported an outside agency to study burn pit health concerns but also pushed for presumptive connection, which he said could actually help in the long run by allowing officials to “get ahead” of acute conditions and treat veterans before problems worsen over time.

The senator said that the government should “assume we’re responsible for the care and safety of veterans.”

Ruiz, a former emergency room doctor, has sponsored or co-sponsored numerous bills to expand the VA’s coverage and care of conditions believed to be related to burn pit exposure.

He highlighted two bills introduced last year, “The Right To Breath Act” which would legislate that nine pulmonary conditions would be qualifying for veterans under a presumption of service connection and receive care.

The other bill mentioned, “Jennifer Kepner Healthcare for Open Air Burn Pit Exposure,” would make veterans exposed to burn pits able to receive low-cost care from the VA.

Both bills remain in subcommittees after being introduced in mid-2019.

Stewart, who spent years advocating for health care coverage for 9/11 first responders and ground zero workers, has set veterans health in relation to burn pits and other burdens as his target.

The comedian noted the parallels that both the 9/11 worker population and veterans have faced — repeated denials of a connection to their health conditions and battling their own government for recognition and help.

“The system is set up to deny them the benefit,” Stewart said of the current setup that requires veterans to prove a service connection before receiving vital healthcare from the Veterans Health Administration.

Most recently he has been working with groups like BurnPits360, the Wounded Warrior Project and other Veterans Service Organizations to write a package of legislation to get stopgap measures introduced to cover health for those suffering and dying from toxic exposure-related conditions with the ultimate goal of a presumptive connection as the standard.

Copp, a former Military Times reporter, spoke with The Post about recent reporting from McClatchy that has focused on K2 exposure victims, those veterans who served at the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, Uzbekistan from 2001 to 2005. The base was used by primarily U.S. forces for aerial missions into nearby Afghanistan to hunt Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida and Taliban members.

But it was the site of massive, decades-long toxic and radioactive materials by the former Soviet Union.

Black goo and glowing retention ponds dotted the small base. And, Copp said, the Pentagon knew about it early yet did not inform troops stationed there. Some of those troops sought help but had little to no support proving their connection to the contaminated site.

Even currently, K2 is not classified in the correct category to be placed on the VA’s Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry, she said.

Copp also referenced work McClatchy has done on the evidence of higher cancer rates among pilots, which some believe is connected to radiation exposure. Those findings have prompted a U.S. Air Force study to look back at data among pilots going back to 1970, she said.

Another bill in Congress seeks to broaden the research to pilots from all services.

Most efforts do have bipartisan support in these early stages, based on bill co-sponsorship.

As Stewart shared though, it may take a change in how the system is operated to see an effect on care for those in need.

“If we’re going to make them fight our wars then come home and fight for their lives, that’s just a model that has to change,” Stewart said.