Iraq: US strikes pushing gov't to end US-led coalition's mission

Repeated US strikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq are pushing the government to end the mission of the US-led coalition in the country, the prime minister’s military spokesman Yahya Rasool said today, Reuters reports.

The US military said a strike yesterday killed a commander from Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed armed group in Iraq that the Pentagon has blamed for attacking its troops.

Rasool said in a statement that the US-led coalition “has become a factor for instability and threatens to entangle Iraq in the cycle of conflict.”

The US-led international military coalition in Iraq was set up to fight Daesh. The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq, advising and assisting local forces to prevent a resurgence of the group.

Since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza on 7 October, Iraq and Syria have witnessed almost daily tit-for-tat attacks between armed groups and US forces stationed in the region.

On Tuesday, in a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein stressed the need to return to dialogue and the negotiating table over the future of the US-led international military coalition in Iraq, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Talks between the two countries began in January, but less than 24 hours later three US service members were killed in an attack that the United States said was carried out by militant groups in Syria and Iraq. The talks have paused since then.

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