This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Iraq Protesters Break Into U.S. Embassy Compound in Baghdad
(32 minutes later)
BAGHDAD — Dozens of angry supporters of an Iraqi Shiite militia broke into the United States Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday, prompting tear gas and sounds of gunfire, as tensions escalated after American airstrikes this week that killed 25 militia fighters.
BAGHDAD — Protesters broke into the heavily guarded compound of the United States Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday and lit fires inside to express their anger over American airstrikes that killed 24 members of an Iranian-backed militia over the weekend.
The protesters broke down a door and stormed inside the embassy compound after hundreds of angry supporters of the militia, Kataib Hezbollah, smashed security cameras outside the embassy.
Chanting “Death to America!” thousands of protesters and militia members demonstrated outside the embassy compound, throwing rocks, covering the walls with graffiti and demanding that the United States withdraw its forces from Iraq.
Shouting “Down, Down U.S.A.!” the crowd hurled water bottles and stones. They raised militia flags and taunted the embassy’s security staff, who remained behind glass windows in a gated reception area. Protesters sprayed graffiti on the wall and windows in red reading: “Closed in the name of the resistance.”
The American airstrikes on Sunday targeted an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia, Kataib Hezbollah, which the United States accused of carrying out a missile attack on an Iraqi military base that killed an American contractor and wounded American and Iraqi service members. A spokesman for the militia denied involvement in the attack.
Flames could be seen rising from inside the compound, and at least three United States troops were spotted on the roof of the embassy. It was not clear what caused a fire at the reception area, and a man on a loudspeaker urged protesters not to proceed any further: “The message was delivered.”
But the size of the American response — five strikes in Iraq and Syria that killed two dozen fighters and wounded dozens of others — has created a new political crisis for the United States in Iraq and given Iran a boost in its competition for influence in the country.
The United States military carried out the strikes against Kataib Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, 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.
Falih Hassan reported from Baghdad, and Ben Hubbard from Beirut, Lebanon.
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.
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.
