According to Abdul Mahdi Iraq was “considering all the options” to protect the country from threats across its borders, the Associated Press reported on Monday at a press conference.

The US stunned the international community last Thursday when it announced it would pull its forces out of Syria, leaving its allies, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, to fight the Islamic State (IS) group alone.

IS militants hold a pocket of territory along the Syrian-Iraqi border. Iraq is keeping reinforcements at the frontier.

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