'A tenacious rearguard action’: State Department claps back against Baghdad asking US to pull troops from Iraq

American diplomats warned Iraq against demanding that the U.S. military leave Iraq, as the diplomatic fallout from the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani continues.

“One of the unfortunate downsides to the Soleimani operation is that it has led to a political backlash inside Iraq,” James Phillips, a Middle East analyst at the Heritage Foundation, told the Washington Examiner. “I think what the State Department is doing is fighting a very tenacious rearguard action, hoping that the Iraqis will have second thoughts.”