Iraq says US strikes are forcing government to end US-led coalition’s mission

DUBAI (Reuters) – Repeated U.S. strikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq are putting pressure on the government to end the U.S.-led coalition’s mission in the country, the prime minister’s military spokesman Yahya Rasool said on Thursday.

The US military said a strike on Wednesday killed a commander of Kata’ib Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group in Iraq that the Pentagon blames for attacking its troops.

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

The US-led international military coalition in Iraq was established to fight the Islamic State. The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq, advising and assisting local forces to prevent the group’s resurgence.

Since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October, Iraq and Syria have seen almost daily attacks between radical Iran-backed armed groups and US forces deployed in the region.

(Reporting by Naira Abdullah and Timor Azhari; Editing by Michael Georgi and Timothy Heritage)

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