Biden, Iraqi PM agree on talks for US-led coalition withdrawal

WASHINGTON, Apr 16: US President Joe Biden and Iraqs Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani said Monday they would keep working towards the withdrawal of a US-led anti-jihadist coalition in the country.
Their meeting at the White House came amid soaring tensions in the Middle East after Iraqs neighbor Iran launched a massive aerial attack on US ally Israel over the weekend.
The US-led military coalition was formed in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group -- the year the jihadists overran nearly a third of Iraqs territory and swaths of neighboring Syria.
Iraq has been trying to stay out of regional tensions amid the six-month war waged by Israel against Iran-backed Palestinian militants in Gaza, following Hamass October 7 attack on Israel.
Armed groups linked to Iran, including some based in Iraq, have since carried out a series of attacks on facilities belonging to the United States, which is Israels main ally.Iraq, hoping not to be consumed by US-Iran hostility, strongly protested a US drone strike in February that killed an Iraqi militia leader, carried out in retaliation for an attack that killed three US service members in Jordan.
But tensions have since subsided between Washington and Baghdad, and they resumed talks on the future of the coalition.
    —AFP