Iraq

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt in Bab al-Sharji area, and another blast followed a few minutes later. Ambulances and civilian cars have evacuated the wounded to nearby hospitals and medical centres, the source added.

Monday's confirmation by the al-Fatih Coalition, headed by Hadi al-Ameri, came because "the decision of ending the presence of foreign forces from Iraq was already passed in the Iraqi Parliament and approved by the government of resigned Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi", Xinhua news agency quoted bloc spokesman Ahmed al-Asadi as saying.

Acting Secretary of Defence Christopher Miller said in a statement on Friday that the drawdown in Afghanistan has resulted in the reduction of US forces in the country to the lowest level since the war began, reports Xinhua news agency.

Salih's comments came during his meeting with the head of the Hashd Shaabi forces Falih al-Fayadh, according to a statement by the Presidency's media office released on Sunday. During their meeting, they discussed the security developments in Iraq and the need to strengthen the security forces to achieve stability in the country.

On January 3, 2020, a US drone strike struck a convoy near Baghdad International Airport that killed al-Muhandis, as well as Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.

During a rally of thousands of supporters of Hashd Shaabi forces at al-Tahrir Square in downtown Baghdad, Hadi al-Ameri, head of Iran-backed Badr Organization, told the demonstrators "the government must abide by its pledges to remove all foreign forces, especially the US forces, according to a timetable."

Backed by Iraqi and international coalition aircraft, the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) special operations tactical units carried out 253 operations against the extremist group so far this year. The CTS's cyber-security teams also managed to "track down 26,280 accounts of terrorist gangs on social media platforms and instant messaging sites".