Foreign troop numbers in Iraq fell by a quarter during 2018, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has said, RT reports.

“In January 2018 there had been almost 11,000 foreign fighters, about 70 percent of them are American, the others are from other countries,” according to Abdul Mahdi.

“In December, the numbers have been reduced to almost 8,000, and the American troops are around 6,000… maybe I am wrong by some hundreds.”

The PM said that more than 12 months after the government declared victory over Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in Iraq, the drawdown was accelerating, AFP reported on Wednesday.

“In recent months, the decrease has sped up and in the last two months there was a drop of 1,000 forces,” he said.