Iran-backed armed factions in Iraq are ending the truce that was meant to give the Iraqi government time to negotiate the withdrawal of US troops from the country, a high-ranking member of one of the groups told The National.

"The resistance factions in Iraq ended this truce and therefore all options are available to the resistance forces to target all US bases inside Iraq,” Haider Al Lami, a member of the political council of Al Nujaba Movement in Iraq, said.

Mr Al Lami said there was "procrastination and stalling” from the American side during talks with the Iraqi government on the withdrawal of troops.

Calls for an end to the truce were raised after at least four members of the Popular Mobilisation Forces's 47th Brigade were killed in a US strike on a base in Babil province, south of Baghdad, on July 30.

The PMF, an umbrella term for groups of armed fighters that are officially part of the Iraqi security forces, confirmed members of its 47th Brigade had been killed in an attack carried out "by missiles fired from drones”.

The brigade belongs to Kataib Hezbollah, one of the most fiercely anti-US groups within the PMF.

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