ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Kataib Hezbollah on Wednesday said that many of Iraq’s candidates projected to win seats in the country’s next term of parliament carry ideologies similar to that of the Islamic Resistance, an umbrella term referring to Iranian-backed Shiite factions in Iraq.

Over 10 million Iraqis—over 56 percent of all eligible voters—headed to the polls on Tuesday to cast their ballots in the country’s sixth parliamentary elections, which saw nearly 7,750 candidates compete for the legislature’s 329 seats.

“What is particularly gratifying about these elections is that many of the candidates who will reach the threshold for seats in the Council of Representatives are of the same ilk as the Islamic Resistance and its authentic approach,” Kataib Hezbollah Secretary-General Abu Hussein al-Hammidawi said in a statement.

Hamidawi lauded the Iraqi people’s “large” participation in the elections, asserting that the turnout proves “beyond any doubt that this nation is alive and deserves the best.”

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq refers to an umbrella network of Iran-backed militias, many of which have been designated as terrorist organizations by the US, such as Kataib Hezbollah and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, among others.

Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups have claimed hundreds of attacks against Israeli and American targets after October 2023 and in response to the war in Gaza.

The Hoquq Movement, Kataib Hezbollah’s parliamentary wing, also participated in Iraq’s Tuesday elections.

Washington has repeatedly called for the disarmament of armed groups within Iraq, claiming that the presence of such factions undermines Iraq’s sovereignty and subjects Baghdad to Tehran’s influence. The paramilitary group has been the subject of several US sanctions.