The top US diplomat expressed confidence Sunday that 5,200 American troops would be allowed to stay in Iraq, even after the war-torn country’s parliament approved a draft measure to urge the expulsion of US forces.

The vote, the news of which broke as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was making the rounds on Sunday morning talk shows in Washington to defend the Donald Trump administration’s decision to kill Islamic Revolutionary Guards elite Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani, is another setback to the US-led campaign to defeat the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS) in Iraq.

The Pentagon paused the anti-IS mission Sunday in preparation for possible retaliation from Iran over Soleimani’s death, after Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah launched two rocket attacks near Iraqi bases where American troops are stationed in Baghdad and Balad. 

“This has limited our capacity to conduct training with partners and to support their operations against Daesh [IS] and we have therefore paused these activities, subject to continuous review,” the coalition said in a statement. The decision marks the second time the United States has halted the mission in the past three months; a temporary pause also came into effect after Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria in October.