Iraqi President Barham Salih on Wednesday condemned the Iranian missile strikes on military bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq.
In a statement by his office, Salih said "the Presidency is following with deep concern the latest development and condemns the Iranian missile strikes on Iraqi soil."
The Presidency "renews its rejection of repeated breach of national sovereignty, and turning Iraq into a battleground for the conflicting parties," according to the statement.
Salih called on all parties to exercise restraint and resort to dialogue to avoid war that threatens the security and peace of the region and the world, the statement said.
Salih said that the presence of the international coalition forces in Iraq was based on the agreements concluded between the Iraqi government and the coalition countries to combat terrorism, the statement added.
Salih's statement came after Iran fired ballistic missiles earlier on the day on military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq's western province of Anbar and near the city of Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.
On Friday, a U.S. drone attacked a convoy near Baghdad International Airport, killing Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy chief of Iraq's paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces.
More than 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support the Iraqi forces in the battles against Islamic State militants, mainly providing training and advising for the Iraqi forces.
