US allies halve number of troops in Iraq coalition

NEW YORK: Members of the 29-country US-led military coalition in Iraq have cut the number of their troops in half, a report by the New York Times says.

The US allies have reduced the number of their troops in the American-led coalition in Iraq to 1,200, the report said on Wednesday, citing coronavirus pandemic as the reason for the cut.

The US itself is also reluctant to keep more than the absolute minimum of troops, especially after the Iraqi parliament unanimously approved a bill on January 5, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the United States from the country.

The bill was passed after the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) – better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, and their companions in a US airstrike authorised by President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport two days earlier.

Later on January 9, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the former Iraqi prime minister, called on the United States to dispatch a delegation to Baghdad tasked with formulating a mechanism for the move.