Anti-US protests in Iraq

Thousands of people in Baghdad, Iraq, protested the presence of US troops in Iraq on Jan. 24, demanding that the US military leave the country. The protest occurred near the US Embassy in Baghdad’s central Green Zone. At press time, around 5,000 members of the US armed forces were stationed in Iraq.

The US military’s presence in Iraq has been controversial since Iranian general Qasem Soleimani along with ranking members of an Iraqi militia were killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3. Shortly after, the Iraqi Parliament passed a nonbinding resolution calling for all foreign militaries to be removed from the country.