Iraq's parliament called on Sunday for U.S. and other foreign troops to leave amid a growing backlash against the U.S. killing of a top Iranian military commander that has heightened fears of a wider Middle East conflict. 

Qasem Soleimani was killed on Friday in a U.S. drone strike on his convoy at Baghdad airport, an attack that carried U.S.-Iranian hostilities into uncharted waters and stoked concerns of a major conflagration. 

The Iraqi parliament passed a resolution calling for an end to all foreign troop presence, reflecting the fears of many in Iraq that the strike could engulf them in another war between two bigger powers long at odds in Iraq and across the region. 

"The Iraqi government must work to end the presence of any foreign troops on Iraqi soil and prohibit them from using its land, air space or water for any reason," it said. 

Read more: 

U.S. killing of Iran's Soleimani: How the world is reacting

Who was Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian commander who Trump had killed?

While such resolutions are not binding on the government, this one is likely to be heeded. Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi had earlier called on parliament to end foreign troop presence as soon as possible. 

The United States said it was disappointed in the result. "While we await further clarification on the legal nature and impact of today's resolution, we strongly urge Iraqi leaders to reconsider the importance of the ongoing economic and security relationship between the two countries and the continued presence of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS (ISIL)," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reacted to the parliament's move by saying: "We'll have to take a look at what we do when the Iraqi leadership and government makes a decision." 

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened sanctions against Baghdad on Sunday. He said if U.S. troops did leave, Baghdad would have to pay Washington for the cost of the air base there. 

"We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that's there. It cost billions of dollars to build, long before my time. We're not leaving unless they pay us back for it," Trump told reporters on Air Force One. 

Trump said that if Iraq asked U.S. forces to leave and it was not done on a friendly basis, "we will charge them sanctions like they've never seen before ever. It'll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame." 

Some 5,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, mostly in advisory roles. 

Abdul Mahdi said that despite the "internal and external difficulties" the country might face, canceling its request for help from U.S.-led coalition military forces "remains best for Iraq on principle and practically." 

Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was also killed in Friday's strike.

Sunday's parliamentary resolution was passed overwhelmingly by Shi'ite lawmakers, as the special session was boycotted by most Sunni Muslim and Kurdish lawmakers. 

One Sunni member of parliament told Reuters that both groups feared that kicking out U.S.-led forces would leave Iraq vulnerable to insurgents, undermine security and heighten the power of Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias. 

Read more: 

China urges the U.S. not to abuse force

U.S. and Iran: A week of revenge

In his first comments on the killing of Soleimani, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would not lament the death of someone who played a leading role in actions that led to the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians and Western personnel, but that "calls for retaliation or reprisals will simply lead to more violence in the region and they are in no one's interest."

Rockets hit near U.S. embassy

A pair of rockets hit near the U.S. embassy in Iraq's high-security Green Zone for the second night in a row on Sunday just hours after Iraq's Foreign Ministry summoned the American ambassador over the strike. 

Admiral Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said U.S. troop presence in Iraq after the Iraqi parliamentary decision would be considered an "occupation." 

Hardline parliamentarians with ties to Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi, a military force close to Iran, had demanded the immediate expulsion of all foreign troops. 

Tom Warrick, a former U.S. official and current fellow at the Atlantic Council, said Soleimani and pro-Iran factions within the Hashed had long sought the U.S.' ouster.  

"If U.S. forces do end up withdrawing, it could grant Soleimani a posthumous victory," Warrick told AFP.  

Read more: 

Soleimani killing is not another Sarajevo incident

The Soleimani assassination and U.S. strategic incoherence

As the session got under way, the U.S.-led coalition announced it was suspending its Iraq operations due to deadly rocket attacks on their bases.   

"This has limited our capacity to conduct training with partners and to support their operations against Daesh (ISIL) and we have therefore paused these activities, subject to continuous review," the coalition said in a statement.  

Late Saturday, two missiles slammed into the Green Zone and another two rockets hit an airbase north of the capital housing American troops.

U.S. troops in Iraq since 2003

The U.S. military could face its second forced exit from Iraq in a decade after the parliament in Baghdad voted on Sunday in support of the expulsion of American forces. 

But the risk of withdrawal could be high: the U.S. pullout in 2011 left a security vacuum that allowed the rise of the ISIL jihadist group – and led to the U.S. military's return. 

The U.S. invasion in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein and subsequent occupation did not require Iraq's agreement. U.S. troop numbers hit a peak of about 170,000 in 2007. 

In 2008, then U.S. President George Bush negotiated a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the Baghdad administration that would permit U.S. troops' presence until 2011, at which time they would leave.  

In 2009, then U.S. President Barack Obama sought a new SOFA that would allow several thousand to remain after 2011 to help Baghdad deal with continuing security problems, especially from extremist groups. But Baghdad rejected U.S. demands that American troops be given immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts, and the new SOFA talks failed.  

On December 8, 2011, the last U.S. troops departed Iraq.  

As U.S. troops left, the ISIL group rose – violent Sunni jihadists who seized control of territory in Iraq and Syria for their extremist "caliphate." The Iraqi military were no match for them, and by early 2014 Baghdad was asking the U.S. for help, especially airstrikes to support their troops. After ISIL seized Mosul in June 2014, Baghdad made a formal request.  

Obama authorized 275 U.S. military personnel back to Iraq, and the Pentagon began regular air strikes to support Iraqi forces. By August the Iraqis "invited" the U.S. and coalition allies to send troops, giving rise to the Pentagon-led Operation Inherent Resolve and the Combined Joint Task Force, which provided air support as well as arms, training and tactical backup.  

With no SOFA governing their presence, U.S. troop numbers in Iraq rose to over 5,000 by 2017, when the fight against ISIL neared its peak.  

Trump was elected president on promises to end U.S. military engagement in the Middle East, a position opposed by the Pentagon. In December 2018 he declared a total withdrawal from Syria.  

But in early 2019, weeks before the formal defeat of ISIL was announced that May, Trump suggested some U.S. troops could stay in Iraq in order to monitor Iran. That outraged many in Iraq, with politicians in most parties and factions demanding the U.S. leave.  

Still, the Pentagon has wanted to maintain a presence of several thousand troops to avert an ISIL resurgence, thousands of whose fighters disappeared back into Iraqi society.  

Around 5,200 remained through the year, and increased last week when a few hundred more were deployed to reinforce embassy security. 

(With input from Reuters, AFP)

(Cover: U.S. Army soldiers man a defensive position at Forward Operating Base Union III in Baghdad, Iraq, December 31, 2019. /Reuters Photo)