Iraq parliament urges government to oust US-led coalition
Parliamentary vote on Sunday focuses on ousting thousands of US troops from military bases, which are threatened by pro-Tehran factions after an American strike killed top Iranian and Iraqi commanders.
"There is no need for the presence of American forces after defeating Daesh (ISIL)," said Ammar al-Shibli, a Shia lawmaker and member of the parliamentary legal committee, according to Reuters news agency.
"We have our own armed forces which are capable of protecting the country," he said.
Around 5,000 US troops remain in Iraq, most of them in an advisory capacity.
Despite decades of enmity between Iran and the US, Iran-backed militia and US troops fought side by side during Iraq's 2014-2017 war against ISIL.
Saturday night, missiles slammed into the Baghdad enclave where the US embassy is located and an airbase north of the capital housing American troops, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten strikes on 52 sites in Iran.
The near-simultaneous attacks seemed to be the first phase of promised retaliation for the US precision drone strike that killed Iran's Major General Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi.
While no one claimed Saturday's attacks, a hardline pro-Iran faction in the Hashed, a network of Shiite-majority armed groups incorporated into the state, urged Iraqis to move away from US forces.
"We ask security forces in the country to get at least 1,000 metres away from US bases starting on Sunday at 5:00 pm (1400 GMT)," said the Kataeb Hezbollah faction.
The deadline coincides with the planned conclusion of Sunday's parliamentary session, which the Hashed has insisted should see a vote on the ouster of US troops.
Some 5,200 US soldiers are stationed across Iraqi bases to support local troops preventing a resurgence of the Islamic State jihadist group.
They are deployed as part of the broader international coalition, invited by the Iraqi government in 2014 to help fight IS.
The Hashed, whose factions have close ties to Iran, has vehemently opposed their presence and called on parliament to revoke the invitation.
- 'Post-humous victory' -
The 329-member parliament was set to meet at 1:00 pm (1000 GMT) but more two hours on, there was still no quorum and the session had not begun.
Several draft bills were being circulated calling for the Iraqi government to "work on ending the presence of all foreign forces and preventing them from using the Iraqi airspace for any reason".
The drafts did not include a timeframe for an ouster.
“If US forces do end up withdrawing, it could grant Soleimani a post-humous victory,” Warrick told AFP.
The US strike on Baghdad international airport early Friday killed a total of five Iranian Revolutionary Guards and five members of Iraq’s Hashed.
After a procession that made its way across various Iraqi cities on Saturday, the remains of the Iranians, plus those of Muhandis and another Hashed member, were flown to Iran.
DNA testing was required to separate the Iraqis’ remains from the Iranians so they could be properly buried, the Hashed said.
As head of the Guards’ foreign operations arm, the Quds Force, Soleimani was a powerful figure domestically and oversaw Iran’s wide-ranging interventions in regional power struggles.
US President Donald Trump had said Soleimani was planning an “imminent” attack on US personnel in Baghdad and should have been killed “many years ago.”
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised “severe revenge” for Soleimani’s death and Tehran named Soleimani’s deputy, Esmail Qaani, to succeed him.
The attacks on Saturday evening appeared to be precisely the reaction Iraqis had long feared: tit-for-tat strikes between the Hashed and the US on Iraqi soil.
“This is no longer a proxy war,” said Erica Gaston, a non-resident fellow at the New America Foundation.
“What you have is America attacking an Iranian general directly, and groups are now openly fighting for Iran to avenge him. This is a direct war,” she told AFP.
AFP
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