Police sources said the blast, near the southern city of Samawa, 270 km south of Baghdad, occurred along a stretch of pipeline that goes near a militia camp.

More than 500 people were killed during the months-long movement that began last year, many of them protesters shot by Iraqi security forces who used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse crowds.

The Department of National Defence said all Canadian troops at the base were safe.

The Trump administration will announce Wednesday that it is withdrawing additional troops from Iraq, as President Donald Trump tries to make good on his campaign promise to disentangle the country from ``endless wars.''

Four U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because contacts have been private, said Monday a U.S. veto is likely because the Americans believe the resolution doesn't go far enough and left out the key element of repatriation.

White House adviser Peter Navarro’s comments about Canada and Afghanistan were grossly uninformed and disrespectful and were not really about the Canadian military.

Almost nothing has been said outside government circles about Canadian judgments that Saddam Hussein had no active weapons of mass destruction program, the paper says -- partly to avoid embarrassing American and British counterparts.

Pompeo said the United States was committed to helping Iraq regain and maintain security, despite President Donald Trump's oft-stated desire to reduce and then eliminate the American troop presence there.

Patriot missile launchers and two other short-range systems are now in place at al-Asad Air Base, where Iran carried out a massive ballistic missile attack against U.S. and coalition troops in January, and at the military base in Irbil, said officials.

The K1 Air Base is the third site coalition forces have left this month, in line with U.S. plans to consolidate its troops in two locations in Iraq.