ERBIL - The Iraqi military said on Tuesday that the US forces withdrawing from Syria have no permission to stay in Iraq, noting that they can be in the country in transit only.

The Iraqi military also contradicted a statement by the Pentagon which said that all the US troops, nearly 1,000, would withdraw from Syria to western Iraq so as to prolong the campaign against the Islamic State (IS).

"All U.S. forces that withdrew from Syria received approval to enter the Kurdistan Region so that they may be transported outside Iraq. There is no permission granted for these forces to stay inside Iraq," the Iraqi military said, as cited by Reuters.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper pointed out that Washington's aim concerning the forces withdrawing from Syria was to take them home.

"The aim isn’t to stay in Iraq interminably, the aim is to pull our soldiers out and eventually get them back home,” Esper said at the Prince Sultan Air Base near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, according to the report.