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US begins withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, media reports say

Al Arabiya TV said, citing an Iraqi parliament member that the US troops are beginning to leave 15 military bases in Iraq

MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. /TASS/. The United States has started withdrawal of its troops from Iraq, Al Arabiya TV said on Monday citing Iraqi parliament member Ali al-Ghanimi.

According to al-Ghanimi, US troops are beginning to leave 15 military bases in Iraq. In his words, the American have confined their presence by two big bases, the one near the city of Erbil in northern Iraq and Ain al-Asad airbase in the Anbar province some 180 kilometers west of Baghdad.

He noted that the United States were seeking to find a lodgement at these bases but "the Iraqi parliament and the Iraqi people insist that American troops be withdrawn from all the bases."

No official comments from the US side about the withdrawal of troops from 15 bases in Iraq have followed as of yet.

On January 5, or two days after the United States’ missile strike near the Baghdad airport which killed General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution demanding complete withdrawal of all foreign troops from the country. The resolution however was passed in the absence of several leading parliamentary factions, which say this resolution is illegitimate and unbinding and its legitimacy is to be confirmed by the country’s Federal Supreme Court.

The United States has been refusing to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Moreover, US President Donald Trump has threatened Baghdad with unprecedented sanctions.