End foreign troop presence

The Iraqi parliament yesterday called on the government to work to end all foreign troop presence as a backlash grew after the killing of a top Iranian military commander and an Iraqi militia leader in a US strike in Baghdad.

A resolution passed by a special session of parliament said the government should cancel its request for assistance from a US-led coalition.

Parliament resolutions, unlike laws, are non-binding to the government. But this one is likely to be heeded: Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi had earlier called on parliament to end foreign troop presence as soon as possible.

“Despite the internal and external difficulties that we might face, it remains best for Iraq on principle and practically,” Abdul Mahdi said.

The special session was called after a US drone strike on Friday on a convoy at Baghdad airport that killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Since the killings, rival Shia political leaders have called for US troops to be expelled from Iraq in an unusual show of unity among factions that have squabbled for months.

“There is no need for the presence of American forces after defeating Daesh (Islamic State),” said Ammar al-Shibli, a Shia lawmaker and member of the parliamentary legal committee, before the parliamentary meeting.

“We have our own armed forces which are capable of protecting the country,” he told Reuters.

Despite decades of enmity between Iran and the United States, Iran-backed militia and US troops fought side by side during Iraq’s 2014-2017 war against Islamic State militants.

Around 5,000 US troops remain in Iraq, most of them in an advisory capacity.

Abdul Mahdi, who holds the post in a caretaker role after resigning in November amid street protests, called on Friday for parliament to convene the extraordinary session to take legislative steps to protect Iraq’s sovereignty.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s foreign ministry has lodged official complaints with the United Nations Secretary-General and Security Council over US air strikes on Iraqi soil that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and several Iraqi militia leaders.

The complaint is about “American attacks and aggression on Iraqi military positions and the assassination of Iraqi and allied high level military commanders on Iraqi soil,” the ministry said in a statement. It described the attacks as “a dangerous breach of Iraqi sovereignty and of the terms of US presence in Iraq.” It called on the Security Council to condemn the attacks.