Bahrain Mirror: Iraq witnessed on Friday (January 24, 2020) a million-man march demanding withdrawal of US troops from the country.

Various political forces and blocs, supporters of resistance factions and Iraqi tribes took part in the march. They heavily gathered in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, raising the Iraqi flags and wearing white coffins.

Iraqi leader Muqtada Al-Sadr stressed the necessity that the US forces leave the Iraqi territories and the abolishing of the security agreements signed with the United States, or else to deal with it as an occupying state. A representative of Sadr took to the stage at the protest site and read out a statement by the influential Shiite cleric. It called for all foreign forces to leave Iraq, the cancellation of Iraq's security agreements with the United States, the closure of Iraqi airspace to US military and surveillance aircraft and for Trump not to be "arrogant" when addressing Iraqi officials.

"If all this is implemented, we will deal with it as a non-occupying country -- otherwise it will be considered a country hostile to Iraq," the statement said.

Thousands of men, women and children massed under grey skies in the Jadiriyah district of east Baghdad, chanting "Get out, get out, occupier" and "Yes to sovereignty".

Jaafar Al-Husseini, spokesman for Kata'ib Hezbollah, said in press statements that all of the Iraqis reject the US existence.

He stressed that other means will be used against the Americans if they do not leave Iraq.

Al-Husseini confirmed that Iraq can't be denied to have its own decision and that the people have discovered that America has other aims in Iraq.

Various Iraqi forces called for participating in the million march, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the uprising.

Lebanese Hezbollah considered that the Iraqi people confirmed its absolute rejection of the US occupation. The million-man rallies emphasized that the Iraqis have never consented to the continuation of the US occupation perching on the homeland.

The statement added that the dignified and courageous stances announced in Baghdad were a sincere expression of the situation in Arab and Islamic Umma which has got fed up with the US occupation.

The US forces assassinated commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qasem Soleimani and the deputy head of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis in Baghdad on January 3, sparking a wave of outrage in Iraq and the region over the U.S. presence.

The Iraqi parliament later voted on a five-measure resolution, including demanding the Iraqi government to work to end the presence of any foreign forces in Iraqi the territory, and obliging the government to cancel a request for assistance from the international coalition to fight ISIS.

Arabic Version