Iraq gets security and economic support from the U.S. for the long-term effort to defeat ISIS, while Iran also provides security support and is aligned with Iraq's majority Shiite population.
Rocket attacks Wednesday on American and Turkish oil facilities in southern Iraq, which may have been carried out by Iranian-backed militias, are the latest example of how Iraq finds itself squarely in the middle of increasing tensions between its two closest partners, the United States and Iran.
Iraq gets security and economic support from the United States for the long-term effort to defeat ISIS, while Iran also provides security support and is aligned with Iraq's majority Shiite population. Amid concerns U.S. forces also could be targeted inside Iraq, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said on Tuesday that Iraq would not tolerate having its territory become the scene of direct or indirect combat between the two nations.
"To the extent that the Iraqis are able to maintain some degree of separation, and we are able to maintain that balance, through our military presence and our economic aid, I think the Iraqis are pretty good at that," he said.
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