Iraqi Parliament Calls for Expulsion of US Troops

Baghdad: Iraq's parliament has passed a resolution calling on the government to expel foreign troops from the country after a vote in an extraordinary session on Sunday.

It also voted to file a United Nations complaint against the U.S. for violating Iraq's sovereignty with its assassination of General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.

Ahead of the vote, chants of "No, no, America" rang out inside the hall.

"Iraq called on the U.N. Security Council to condemn the bombing and assassinations," Iraq's foreign ministry said in a statement following the vote.

In a blow to the US which maintains thousands of troops in the war ravaged country, the Iraqi parliament approved "a five-point action plan that would require the Iraqi government to end the presence of foreign troops in the country, and withdraw its request for assistance from the anti-ISIS global coalition."

"Parliament also called on the government to ban the use of Iraqi airspace by any foreign power." 

The move comes after top Iranian commander Major-General Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed on Friday near Baghdad's international airport in an air raid ordered by US President Donald Trump.

Speaking before an extraordinary session of parliament Sunday, Iraq's outgoing Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi recommended that the nation's lawmakers approve a measure to end U.S. troop presence "immediately" following the assassination of General Soleimani in Baghdad.

"Iraq has two options," he said, adding that the country can either put an immediate end to the presence of foreign troops or reconsider a draft resolution that ensures the presence of US troops is tied to training Iraqi security forces in the fight against ISIS.

"Significantly Prime Minister Mahdi disclosed that General Soleimani was in Baghdad to meet with him about a Saudi request for dialogue to relieve tensions in the region--not, as the U.S. has claimed, to plan attacks against American forces.

What happened was a political assassination," Mahdi said. "Iraq cannot accept this."

'Weak response'

Commenting on the resolution, Iraqi leader Muqtada al-Sadr said the move fell short of an appropriate response to recent development in Iraq and called on foreign armed groups to unite.

"I consider this a weak response insufficient against American violation of Iraqi sovereignty and regional escalation," al-Sadr, who leads the Sairoon bloc, the largest parliament, said in a letter to the assembly read out by a supporter

Al-Sadr listed a number of demands including the immediate cancellation of the security agreement with the US, the closure of the US embassy, the expulsion of US troops in a "humiliating manner", and criminalising communication with the US government.

"Finally, I call specifically on the Iraqi resistance groups and the groups outside Iraq more generally to meet immediately and announce the formation of the International Resistance Legions," he said.