BAGHDAD — At an extraordinary session in the absence of all Kurdish and most Sunni parliament members, the Iraqi parliament passed Jan. 5 a decision urging the government to cancel the request for assistance submitted by it to the international coalition to fight the Islamic State (IS). Parliament called to end the presence of any foreign forces on Iraqi territory and prevent them from using Iraqi land, water and air for any reason whatsoever.
The decision came in the aftermath of the killing of Qasem Soleimani, chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units, by US forces Jan. 3.