LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th January, 2020) The United Kingdom asks the Iraqi government to allow the international anti-terrorist coalition to continue performing its duty in the region, UK Secretary of State for Defense Ben Wallace said on Tuesday.
On Sunday, the Iraqi parliament voted to expel troops of the international anti-IS (Islamic State terrorist group, banned in Russia) coalition from the country following the death of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in a US strike.
"The coalition is in Iraq at the request of the Iraqi government to help protect Iraqis and others from the very real threat of Daesh [Islamic State]. Our commitment to Iraq's stability and sovereignty is unwavering, and we urge the Iraqi government to ensure the coalition is able to continue our vital work countering this shared threat," he said during his speech in the parliament.
The situation in the region has become exceedingly more fractious after the US killing of Soleimani in the early hours of Friday. Just a week before, the United States accused the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group of launching an attack on a US military base near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk, which killed a US contractor on December 27. In retaliation, the US launched a strike against Kataib Hezbollah's forces on Sunday killing about two dozen of its fighters, which, in turn, triggered Shiite protesters' attempts to storm the gates of the US embassy in Baghdad.
