Bomb explosions target US-led coalition military convoys in south Iraq, near capital

Separate roadside bomb attacks have struck two convoys of trucks carrying logistical equipment belonging to the US-led military coalition in Iraq's southern province of Muthanna near the border with Kuwait, and south of capital Baghdad.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language Shafaq news agency on Thursday that the first attack took place on a highway near the provincial capital city of Samawah.

The source added that the explosion caused no casualties, but only some material damage.

The second attack took place later on in the Latifiya region on the outskirts of capital, Baghdad, another security source was quoted by AFP as saying, causing only material damage without any casualties.

They are the latest in a string of such incidents in recent weeks. On Wednesday evening, another convoy carrying supplies to coalition forces was attacked in the city of Mahmoudiyah in Baghdad province. The blast left no casualties and just damaged vehicles.

First group of US occupation forces leaves Iraq: Cmdr.

The spokesman for the Iraqi Joint Operations Command announces the withdrawal of the first batch of US troops from the Arab country based on an agreement reached between the Baghdad and Washington.

Anti-US sentiment has been running high in Iraq since the assassination of top Iranian anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Units, along with their companions in a US terror drone strike authorized by President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3.

Iraqi lawmakers approved a bill two days later, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the United States from the country.

Karim Alaiwi, a legislator from the Fatah (Conquest) alliance and a member of the Security and Defense Committee in the Iraqi legislature, told Arabic-language Baghdad Today news website on November 19 that his parliamentary coalition and all other national factions seek complete pullout of all foreign forces, not just Americans, from the Iraqi soil.

Alaiwi described the Pentagon’s decision to reduce the number of US forces in Iraq as “unacceptable,” emphasizing that the Iraqi parliament’s resolution concerning withdrawal of US troops from the entire Iraqi territories, including the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, is unambiguous and irreversible.

Pentagon to pull 2,500 US troops from Afghanistan, Iraq before Trump leaves

The US Defense Department has reportedly been ordered to cut the number of troops in Afghanistan from 4,500 to 2,500 and the number of forces in Iraq from 3,000 to 2,500 by January 15, days before outgoing President Donald Trump leaves office.

Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller had announced two days earlier that the US will withdraw thousands more US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq by January 15, 2021 – just days before Trump leaves office on January 20.

Miller said the withdrawal will leave approximately 2,500 troops in Afghanistan and roughly the same number in Iraq.

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