The Iraqi authorities began to prepare a mechanism for the withdrawal of American troops, said the representative of the commander of the armed forces of the country Abdel Kerim Half.
“The activities of the international coalition in Iraq will be limited to consultations, armaments and training of military personnel, and the armed forces will leave Iraq. <…> Recent American attacks are stupidity that cannot be kept silent”, – said Half, whose statement was shown by Al Jazeera.
He pointed out that “the Iraqi government has limited the ground and air movement of the forces of the international coalition and will not allow them to move anywhere”.
According to Half, Washington did not inform the General Command of the Iraqi Armed Forces about its operations.
On December 29, the United States struck at the facilities of the Shiite Kataib Hezbollah group in Iraq and Syria. The Pentagon explained that this is a response to the attack of the movement on the Iraqi base near Kirkuk, where a US citizen was killed and four American soldiers were injured.
After this, the Shiites began to storm the American embassy in Baghdad. The United States responded with the assassination of Iranian general Kassem Suleimani, who was considered the organizer of these actions.
Baghdad regarded the attack as a violation of the conditions for the deployment of the US military in Iraq.
The Iraqi parliament demanded that the government achieve the withdrawal of American troops. After that, the US President Donald Trump threatened Iraq with sanctions in case of hostile actions of Baghdad.
He emphasized that he was ready to impose sanctions on Iraq “that they had never seen before”, and added that the US military did not intend to leave the country until Baghdad paid for the air base built by the Americans.