170 Iraqi MPs Sign Draft Law to Expel U.S. Troops from Iraq

Only 150 votes are needed that the draft resolution be approved.
The session came two days after a U.S. drone strike on a convoy at Baghdad airport which killed Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces deputy chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
“There is no need for the presence of American forces after defeating ISIL,” 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 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, most of them in an advisory capacity.
Iraqi parliament facing historic test
In the face of the Iraqi people’s will, the Iraqi parliament is facing a historic test about voting to expel U.S. troops from Iraq.
Expelling Iraqi troops has turned into a “national demand”.
During the funeral procession for General Suleimani, 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 “U.S. terrorists” from their country.
Following the terrorist attack by the U.S., 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 U.S. army.
The prime minister said the U.S. move was a violation of the Iraqi sovereignty and an affront to national pride.
The prime minister called the U.S. act a dangerous move which will trigger another devastating war in Iraq and the region.
Since the U.S. terrorist attack, rival political leaders have called for U.S. 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 U.S. troops to leave Iraq on Saturday during an elaborate funeral procession for those killed in the attack.