“The resistance factions are completely prepared to inflict a great defeat on American forces if they go against the will of the Iraqi government and people,” Mahmoud al-Rubaye, a member of Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq's political wing, said in an interview with Russia's RT Arabic television news network on Thursday.

He added, “I think the United States is afraid of direct confrontation with resistance groups, because it has a bitter experience of face-off with them.”

A top official of Iraq’s al-Nujaba Movement says the Iraqi nation must turn to resistance in case US troops don’t withdraw in the wake of a related parliamentary bill, Press TV reported.

Rubaye highlighted that Iraqi anti-US resistance groups are now much more developed and ready compared to the time before 2011.

The remarks came two days after influential Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded that Iraqis stage a “million-man march” against the continued US military presence in the country.

Influential Shia cleric Sadr, who heads the largest parliamentary bloc in Iraq, calls for a ‘million-strong march’ against continued US military presence on Iraqi soil.

The march is needed “to condemn the American presence and its violations,” Sadr, who leads the largest parliamentary bloc, Sairoon, said in a tweet on Tuesday.

“The skies, land, and sovereignty of Iraq are being violated every day by occupying forces,” he added. The cleric, however, cautioned that such a show of popular disapproval should be a “peaceful, unified demonstration,” but did not offer a date or location for the proposed rally.

On January 5, Iraqi lawmakers unanimously approved a bill, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the United States from the country.

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