Iraq parliament votes to expel US soldiers

Baghdad - Some 5,200 US soldiers are stationed across Iraqi bases to support local troops preventing a resurgence of Daesh.

Iraq's parliament on Sunday urged the government to oust thousands of American troops from the country, stepping up pressure over the US killing of top Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.
Iraq's foreign ministry summoned the US ambassador, while caretaker premier Adel Abdel Mahdi attended an extraordinary parliamentary session to slam the strike as a "political assassination".
He joined 168 lawmakers - just enough for quorum in Iraq's 329-seat parliament - to discuss the ouster of US troops.
Some 5,200 US soldiers are stationed across Iraqi bases to support local troops preventing a resurgence of Daesh. They are deployed as part of the broader international coalition, invited by the Iraqi government in 2014 to help fight Daesh.
"The parliament has voted to commit the Iraqi government to cancel its request to the international coalition for help to fight Daesh," speaker Mohammed Halbusi announced.
The cabinet would have to approve any decision but the premier had earlier indicated support for an ouster. "We face two main choices," he told MPs: either immediately voting for foreign troops to leave or revisiting their mandate through a parliamentary process.
Hardline parliamentarians with ties to the Hashed Al Shaabi military force, which is close to Iran, had demanded a tougher decision calling for the immediate expulsion of all foreign troops.
No Kurdish and most Sunni MPs boycotted the session as they were more supportive of a US troop presence, seen as a counterweight to Iran. They had been threatened by Hashed-linked MPs, who said they would be seen as having "betrayed" Iraq if they boycotted.

• MENA