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Iraqi MPs back call to expel US troops after drone strike on Iran general

Iraqi MPs back call to expel US troops after drone strike on Iran general

Iraqi MPs have passed a non-binding resolution calling for foreign troops to leave, after the US killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad airport last week.

Some 5,000 US soldiers are in Iraq as part of the international coalition against the Islamic State group.

In another development, Iran announced it was removing all limits on its enrichment of uranium.

The move further distanced Tehran from an agreement struck with the US and other world powers in 2015 aimed at preventing it developing nuclear weapons.

Soleimani's killing marks a major escalation in tensions between Tehran and Washington, which pulled out of the nuclear agreement in 2018.

Under Soleimani's leadership, Iran had bolstered Hezbollah in Lebanon and other pro-Iranian militant groups, expanded its military presence in Iraq and Syria, and orchestrated Syria's offensive against rebel groups in the country's long civil war.

Iraq finds itself in a difficult position as an ally both of neighbouring Iran, which is demanding revenge for Soleimani's assassination on Iraqi soil, and of the US.

US forces were invited to return to Iraq in 2014 to help defeat IS, and the Baghdad government sees the killing of Soleimani as a violation of the terms of the coalition's presence.
 

[Source: BBC]

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