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Iraq Protesters Try to Storm U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Iraq Protesters Stone U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
(32 minutes later)
BAGHDAD — Hundreds of Iraqi mourners tried to storm the United States Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday in response to American airstrikes this week that killed 25 fighters from an Iranian-backed Shiite militia. BAGHDAD — Hundreds of angry supporters of an Iraqi Shiite militia smashed security cameras outside the United States Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, hurled stones and set up protest tents in response to American airstrikes this week that killed 25 fighters of the Iran-backed militia in Iraq.
The mourners held funerals in a Baghdad neighborhood before marching to the heavily fortified Green Zone, the site of the sprawling United States Embassy. Shouting “Down, Down U.S.A.!” the crowd tried to push inside the embassy grounds, hurling water bottles and smashing security cameras outside. They raised militia flags and taunted the embassy’s security staff, who remained behind the glass windows in the gates’ reception area. Protesters sprayed graffiti on the wall and windows in red reading: “Closed in the name of the resistance.”
The crowd tried to storm the embassy, shouting “Down, down U.S.A.!” The United States military carried out the strikes against the Iran-backed militia, Kataib Hezbollah, on Sunday. They were described as retaliation for a rocket attack last week that the United States attributed to the group, which killed an American contractor at an Iraqi military base.
Security guards retreated inside the embassy, as protesters hurled water bottles and smashed security cameras outside. The American attack — the largest targeting an Iraqi state-sanctioned militia in recent years — and the calls for retaliation represent a new escalation in a proxy war between the United States and Iran in the Middle East.
Demonstrators also hung yellow flags belonging to the Kataeb Hezbollah militia, which is backed by Iran, outside the walls of the embassy. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the strikes were intended to send a message that the United States would not tolerate actions by Iran that jeopardized American lives.
Kataib Hezbollah said on Monday that it would retaliate for the American strikes, raising concerns of new attacks that could threaten American interests in the region.
The United States attack outraged both the militias and the Iraqi government, which said it would reconsider its relationship with the American-led coalition — the first time it has said it would do so since an agreement was struck to keep some United States troops in the country. Iraq called the attack a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty.
In a partly televised meeting on Monday, Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi of Iraq told cabinet members that he had tried to stop the United States operation “but there was insistence” from American officials.
The United States military said “precision defensive strikes” were conducted against five sites operated by the Kataib Hezbollah.
The group, which is a separate force from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, operates under the umbrella of the state-sanctioned militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Many of them are supported by Iran.