Protesters back off embassy after siege
Militia declares victory in fight to drive US from Iraq
Demonstrators laying siege to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad began to disperse as security personnel fired tear gas Wednesday on the second day of unrest after U.S. airstrikes killed at least two dozen Iran-backed fighters in Iraq.
Militia leaders with the umbrella group Popular Mobilization Forces ordered protesters to leave, calling the demonstration a win for the group’s fight to expel U.S. troops from Iraq.
The protest broke out Tuesday as demonstrators shouting “Death to America!” smashed their way into the embassy compound and set fire to a reception area. The Pentagon said it rushed reinforcements to the embassy, and attack helicopters swooped over the complex.
The mob retreated from the compound Tuesday evening and camped out in tents overnight, setting up a makeshift clinic and serving meals out of pots. Dozens of yellow flags belonging to Iran-backed Shiite militias fluttered atop the reception area and were plastered along the embassy’s concrete wall along with anti-U.S. graffiti.
U.S. guards had fired tear gas to drive back the crowd, and soldiers manned the roof of the main building, their guns pointed at the protesters. Iraqi forces who guard the usually safe Green Zone where the embassy is
located did little to stop the chaos.
Anti-government protesters have been trying to enter the Green Zone for weeks, but they have been beaten back by security forces, who have killed hundreds of demonstrators.
The State Department said that all embassy personnel were safe and that no evacuation was planned.
The U.S. reinforcements included about 100 Marines, a U.S. military official who was not authorized to speak publicly told USA TODAY.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the airstrikes as a “decisive response” to a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base that killed an American contractor last week.
He also postponed an upcoming trip that had included a stop in Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky, the State Department announced Wednesday.
President Donald Trump accused Iran of orchestrating the embassy attack.“Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will,” he tweeted. “They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!”
In another tweet, Trump called Tuesday’s incident the “Anti-Benghazi.”
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticized the U.S. airstrikes.
In an apparent reference to Trump’s allegations of Iranian involvement, Khamenei said in remarks carried by a semi-official news agency that “if the Islamic Republic makes a decision to confront any country, it will do it directly,” the Associated Press reported.
The Pentagon, in defending the airstrikes, cited attacks by the Kataeb Hezbollah militia on Iraqi bases. The “defensive” strikes targeted three sites in Iraq and two in Syria that included weapon storage facilities and command and control locations, it said.
Kataeb Hezbollah operates under the Popular Mobilization Forces umbrella.