BAGHDAD (BNO NEWS) -- The Iraqi Minister of National Reconciliation Amer al-Khuza'e said on Wednesday that a number of Iraqi armed groups have decided to join the political process, Aswat al-Iraq news agency reported.

"The Ministry of National Reconciliation has opened dialogue with armed groups outside Iraq, in order to encourage them to enter in the political process," Minister Khuza'e said in a news conference.

"Those groups had been within certain detachments who had been resisting the American Forces," he added.

A number of armed groups inside Iraq, in its capital of Baghdad and other provinces of Salahaddin, Kirkuk, Diala and Mosul, have decided to throw their arms. They exceed five groups, which did not attack Iraqi citizens.

"A number of groups tried to undermine the national reconciliation, but the armed groups have decided not to raise arms again, in response to the current political process and the Agreement on the withdrawal of the American forces from Iraq," one of the leaders of the groups said.

According to a security agreement between Baghdad and Washington, all US forces will be withdrawn by the end of 2011. Less than 50,000 US troops remain in Iraq, eight years since since the U.S.-led war began March 20, 2003.

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