He said during a Facebook live stream event to political supports that "I am doing everything to defend our nation's security from all directions: in the north facing Lebanon and Hezbollah, in Syria facing Iran and Hezbollah, unfortunately in Iraq as well facing Iran.

We are surrounded by radical Islam led by Iran."Over the past six weeks there's been three significant airstrikes on Iraqi paramilitary forces bases — at least one of which US officials have confirmed Israeli responsibility for. All of them targeted Iran-backed Shia paramilitary units.

 The 'mystery' attacks, two of which came in August and one in July, have renewed calls from Iraqi parliament for a complete US troops withdrawal from the country, especially given the demise of the Islamic State and now with no official justification for American forces to be there.