Iran-backed militias offer truce for US pullout from Iraq

Iraqi militias backed by Iran have agreed to temporarily halt attacks targetting the American presence in Iraq. The deal has been reached on the condition that US-led coalition troops withdraw from the country in line with a parliamentary resolution.

Roadside bombs and in particular rocket attacks targetting the US Embassy in Baghdad have strained ties between Washington and Baghdad. On Sunday also, a roadside bomb targetted a convoy that was transporting equipment for the US-led coalition, prompting questions over whether such a truce could hold across all militia factions.

Mohammed Mohie, a spokesman for the powerful Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah.

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"If it does not withdraw, the resistance factions will resume their military activities with all the capabilities available to them," he said.

Iraqi lawmakers voted in January on a non-binding resolution to oust US-led coalition troops from the country, following a Washington-directed drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis outside Baghdad's international airport.

The Trump administration had earlier warned Iraq's leadership it would close the US Embassy in Baghdad if the militia groups were not contained.

The US has blamed Iran-backed militia groups, in particular Kataib Hezbollah, for perpetrating attacks on the American presence in Iraq.

It was during a meeting with Abu Fadak -- Abdulaziz al-Muhammadawi, known as Abu Fadak, the deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Forces and a commander of the Kataib Hezbollah -- last week that an agreement was reached for a ceasefire for at least two months, in return for a scheduled US withdrawal to be determined at a later date.

The militias' truce announcement coincided with an apparent shift in US rhetoric, after Iraqi officials have said any US Embassy closure would isolate Iraq from the world.