Iraqi prime minister urges US to prepare troop withdrawal

The prime minister Iraq , Adel Abdul Mahdi, asked the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo , that Washington would send a delegation to the country to prepare for the withdrawal of US troops from the region. Earlier this week, the country's parliament passed a resolution to remove foreign forces from the country.

According to a statement from the prime minister's office, Mahdi requested Pompeo to send a "delegation to Iraq to establish the necessary mechanisms to implement Parliament's decision to withdraw troops from the country safely."

The State Department confirmed the Pompeo-Mahdi conversation, but the statement does not cite the Iraqi ruler's request for troop withdrawal.

In Iraq, US troops are part of a coalition of countries fighting the Islamic State terrorist group . The terrorists were defeated in 2019, with the support of Shiite militias in the region, and lost virtually all their territory in the country.

The Iraqi parliament's decision to call for troops to leave came after the United States launched an air strike in Baghdad to kill Iranian general Qasem Soleimani . The Iraqi government was not consulted about the operation. On Tuesday, Iran retaliated by bombing two US bases in Iraq.

In a note issued on Friday, the prime minister condemned both the operation that resulted in the death of the Iranian general and Tehran's reprisal as a violation of his sovereignty. "Iraq is making unremitting efforts in contacting all parties involved and preventing its transformation into a battlefield," the statement said.