An Iran-backed militia calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has announced a purported $10 million reward for anyone who kills US President Donald Trump, citing the 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis as justification.
The Pentagon said the September pullout fulfils a 2024 agreement with Baghdad. American troop levels, once above 170,000 during the Iraq war, have steadily declined to a small advisory force ahead of the final withdrawal.
The most enduring consequence of a war is often not what happens on the battlefield, but what it reveals about the institutions that authorise it.
An explosion aboard the Panama-flagged MSC Sariska V has triggered competing narratives, with Iran claiming a retaliatory strike and Iraqi reports pointing towards a possible technical failure.
The attacks come as regional tensions continue to escalate, with the ongoing US-Israel conflict involving Iran entering its 36th day. Iran-backed militias have repeatedly targeted US military positions in Iraq and neighbouring areas in recent weeks.
An Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militia has said that one of its fighters was killed in a US airstrike two days ago in eastern Syria.
A Shiite militia in Iraq has claimed responsibility for an attack with a cruise missile on a site in Haifa in northern Israel.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has said that his government is committed to bolstering the industry, agriculture, trade, and tourism sectors, to reduce the country's reliance on oil and transition to a diversified economy.
This marks the beginning of what appears to be a series of more substantial strikes against Iranian-backed militias, who have been implicated in attacks on US troops in the region.
The spokesman for the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi armed forces said these strikes come at a time when Iraq is “striving to ensure stability in the region"
