Only 150 votes were needed for the draft resolution to be approved.

The session came two days after a US drone strike on a convoy at Baghdad airport which killed Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

“There is no need for the presence of American forces after defeating Daesh,” said Ammar al-Shibli, a lawmaker and member of the parliamentary legal committee, Reuters reported.

“We have our own armed forces which are capable of protecting the country,” he said.

Around 5,000 US troops remain in Iraq, most of them in an advisory capacity.

In the face of the Iraqi people’s will, the Iraqi parliament is facing a historic test about voting to expel US troops from Iraq.

Expelling Iraqi troops has turned into a “national demand”.

During the funeral procession for General Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC Quds Force, and al-Muhandis in Baghdad, al- Kadhimiya, Karbala and Najaf, hundreds of thousands of angry Iraqi mourners carried placards demanding an immediate withdrawal of “US terrorists” from their country.

Following the terrorist attack by the US, Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi asked the parliament to take a formal position based on Article 58 of the Iraqi constitution about the “illegal action” of the US army.

The prime minister said the US move was a violation of the Iraqi sovereignty and an affront to national pride.

The prime minister called the US act a dangerous move which will trigger another devastating war in Iraq and the region.

Since the US terrorist attack, rival political leaders have called for US troops to be expelled from Iraq in an unusual show of unity among factions that have squabbled for months.

Hadi al-Amiri, the top candidate to succeed al-Muhandis, repeated his call for US troops to leave Iraq on Saturday during an elaborate funeral procession for those killed in the attack.

MNA/TehranTimes