Operation Inherent Resolve

The United States and Iraq have said they will begin discussions on the future of American and other foreign troops in the country, with Baghdad expecting the talks to lead to a timeline for reducing their presence.

The United States will send 300 more military personnel to the Middle East to help with the disposal of explosive devices, maintaining communications and other activities, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said, quoted by Reuters.

He noted that the servicemen will not be stationed in Israel.

U.S. military airstrikes in eastern Syria were a message to Iran and Tehran-backed militias that targeted American troops this month and several other times over the past year, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

The main targets of the attack were two military bases in the east of the country, more precisely the Command of Unmanned Aerial Systems in the province of Batman and the command of the 23rd Infantry Division in ırnak Province.
The Kurds used drones, and as the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced, there were no casualties or material damage.

The United States launched airstrikes in Syria on Feb. 25, targeting facilities near the Iraqi border used by Iranian-backed militia groups. The Pentagon said the strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq earlier this month that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member and other coalition troops.

Six Iraqi security personnel and three civilians were killed in an ambush Nov. 21 carried out by ISIL north of Baghdad, police and a local official said.    

A police source said a roadside bomb hit a car and jihadists opened fire on a rescue team of policemen and state-aligned paramilitary forces when they arrived at the scene, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the capital.    

Greece on Tuesday expressed "serious concern" over the escalation of violence in Iraq, while condemning recent strikes by the Kataib Hezbollah militia group against bases that host forces of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State in the region.

A rocket attack in northern Iraq killed an American contractor and wounded several military personnel on Dec. 28, the first U.S. casualties from a string of recent strikes, the international coalition against the ISIL group said.    

In an area of northwestern Syria supposed to be free of acts of aggression, on Nov. 17 at least nine civilians were killed and 10 injured in Russian airstrikes, a local civil defense agency said.

Germany strongly condemned the Syrian regime and its allies on July 12 for their recent airstrikes in the country's northwest that have killed and injured dozens of civilians.