Salih: Iraq can't be 'conflict arena' for others

Iraq's president Barham Salih on Tuesday said that his country cannot "be a conflict arena for others", as he attended an official ceremony in Baghdad to commemorate the anniversary of the killing of a powerful Iranian general and a top Iraqi militia leader in a US drone strike.

The killing of General Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at Baghdad's airport pushed Tehran and Washington perilously close to all-out conflict and sparked outrage in Iraq, leading parliament to pass a non-binding resolution days later calling for the expulsion of all foreign troops from Iraq.

The Iraqi government's commemoration is being held amid heightened tensions between Iran and the US in the final days of President Donald Trump's administration.

Already, America has conducted B-52 bomber flyovers and sent a nuclear submarine into the Persian Gulf over what Trump officials describe as the possibility of an Iranian attack on the anniversary of the strike that killed Soleimani and al-Muhandis.

Soleimani headed the elite Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, responsible for the Islamic Republic's foreign operations, and he frequently shuttled between Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.

Al-Muhandis was Iraq's most powerful militia leader and was deputy commander of the PMF.

They both gained prominence for advising Shiite paramilitary forces fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq, before it was defeated in 2017.

Their killing dramatically ratcheted up tensions in the region and brought the US and Iran to the brink of war.

Iran hit back by firing a barrage of ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases housing US troops, resulting in brain injuries to dozens of them.

Iranian officials have suggested that more retaliation is coming.