Iraq MPs call for timetable for foreign troop pullout

Iraq's parliament called for the government to draw up a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country in a resolution passed on 1 March, the speaker's office said.

The speaker's office said in a statement: ‘The Iraqi parliament expresses its gratitude to all countries which have supported Iraq in its fight against Daesh (the Islamic State group) and calls for the government to draw up a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops.’

Washington in October 2014 forged a 74-country coalition, as well as international organisations such as NATO, to assist Iraqi forces in a fightback against IS which at the time had seized swathes of the country and posed a military threat to Baghdad.

On 5 February, the coalition announced it was ‘adjusting’ its force levels in Iraq downward as it shifted away from combat operations following the jihadists' expulsion from all Iraqi urban centres.

Brigadier General Jonathan Braga, the coalition's director of operations, said ‘an appropriate amount of capabilities’ would be kept in Iraq in addition to the forces needed to train, advise and equip the Iraqis.

Such a presence would be coordinated with the Iraqi government, said the coalition, whose main force is made up of 5,000 US soldiers in Iraq.