Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi arrived Jan. 11 in Erbil — his first official visit to the Kurdistan region since taking office — to discuss the country’s stability and the need for Kurdistan to cooperate with a push to expel US forces.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani tweeted Jan. 8 that Iran will "kick all US forces out of the region" in response to the Jan. 3 killing by US forces of Qasem Soleimani, chief commander of the Quds Force in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units.