BAGHDAD, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The international coalition forces, tasked with fighting the Islamic State (IS) militant group, on Saturday handed over their position in al-Habbaniyah air base in the western province of Anbar to the Iraqi security forces.
Yehia Rasool, spokesperson of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, said in a statement that the military position was handed over to the Iraqi forces after "fruitful dialogue" between the coalition forces and the Iraqi government.
Ali Dawood, mayor of the nearby town of al-Habbaniyah, told Xinhua that the withdrawal of the U.S.-led coalition forces from their position within al-Habbaniyah air base, some 70 km west of Baghdad, was conducted earlier in the day with the presence of senior officials of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and provincial officials.
The base, which also known as Camp Taqaddum, has hosted the U.S.-led coalition forces tasked to train and advise the Iraqi security forces in their battles to liberate the Iraqi areas seized by the extremist IS militants in 2014.
Meanwhile, a U.S.-led coalition spokesman tweeted that 500 coalition personnel departed the Taqaddum base as the Iraqi forces are "strong enough" to defeat Daesh (IS group) in Anbar province.
The military base is the fourth that Iraq has received from the international coalition forces recently after the coalition forces withdrew from the military bases of al-Qaim in western Iraq, and al-Qayyara and K1 in the north.
On Jan. 5, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution requiring the government to end the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, just two days after a U.S. drone strike on a convoy at Baghdad airport, which killed Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolution Guards Corps.
Over 5,000 U.S. troops have been deployed in Iraq to support Iraqi forces in battles against the IS, mainly for training and advisory purposes.
The troops were part of the U.S.-led international coalition that has also been conducting air raids against IS targets in both Iraq and Syria.
