US Embassy in Baghdad Evacuated Due to Seige
Press TV, via Veterans Today,
31 December, 2019
Iraqi protesters set ablaze a sentry box in front of the US Embassy building in the capital Baghdad to protest against the weekend’s air strikes by US planes on several bases belonging to Hashd al-Sha’abi, December 31, 2019. (Photo by AFP)
The United States’ Embassy in Baghdad has been evacuated after thousands of angry Iraqi demonstrators gathered outside the gates of the compound to condemn Washington’s fatal military aggression that targeted Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
Also on Tuesday, Iraqis held a massive funeral procession in the capital Baghdad for the victims of the US air raids, which killed at least 31 PMU fighters from the Kata’ib Hezbollah faction and injured dozens of others in near the Syrian border in Anbar Province.
Caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi has announced three days of public mourning.
Thousands of angry protests managed to reach the US diplomatic mission which is located in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, chanting ‘Death to America’ and burning US flags.
The protesters further held up signs calling for the US mission to be shut down and for the parliament to order US forces to leave Iraq.
“Parliament should oust US troops, or else we will,” one poster read.
Reuters cited two Iraqi Foreign Ministry sources as saying that the US ambassador and other staff were evacuated from the embassy out of security concerns as protests raged outside.
Only a few embassy protection staff were left behind, according to the Reuters.
American forces deployed inside the compound have fired tear gas, flash bangs and stun grenades to disperse the crowd.
The protesters have breached the outer wall of the high-security compound. They have sprayed the words “Closed in the name of the people” on the gates of the American mission, throwing bricks and stones at the surveillance cameras around the building.
Outside the mission, Iraqi security forces fired teargas and stun grenades as they tried to prevent the protesters from making their way into the diplomatic compound. At least 12 people were wounded in the clashes.
Only a small amount of teargas was used and the PMU members taking part in the rallies, using loud speakers, urged the crowd to disperse, a Reuters witness said.
The Iraqi caretaker premier called on the protesters to “immediately” leave the compound.
“We recall that any aggression or harassment of foreign embassies will be firmly prohibited by the security forces,” Abdel Mahdi’s office said.
The protester remained defiant, with a group of them storming and burning a security post at the entrance of the embassy.
US sending additional troops to Baghdad embassy
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Tuesday that the United States was sending additional forces to its embassy in Baghdad, and called on the Iraqi government to help protect American personnel.
“We have taken appropriate force protection actions to ensure the safety of American citizens, military personnel and diplomats in country, and to ensure our right of self-defense,” Esper said in a statement.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held phone conversations with the caretaker premier and President Barham Salih, warning that Washington will “defend its people,” according to a State Department statement.
The two Iraqi leaders also assured Pompeo “that they took seriously their responsibility for and would guarantee the safety and security of US personnel and property.”
‘US unwanted in Iraq’
Hashd al-Shabi commander Faleh al-Fayyadh and Kata’ib Hezbollah commander Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes along with other senior Hashd leaders were among the protesters.
Speaking to Reuters, Qais al-Khazali, the head of Asaib Ahl al-Haq — another PMU faction — said “Americans are unwanted in Iraq. They are a source of evil and we want them to leave.”
Many protesters have set up tents, announcing plans for an indefinite sit-in until the embassy is closed and the ambassador expelled from the country.
Earlier in the day, Iraqi lawmakers chanted anti-US slogans during a parliamentary session.
Trump blames Iran
Reacting to the developments in Iraq, US President Donald Trump said in a tweet that Iran was to blame and would be held “fully responsible.”
Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!
45K people are talking about this
“Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many,” Trump tweeted. “We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the US Embassy in Iraq.”
Those casualties came in what the US described as a rocket attack targeting a military base located near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Friday.
Washington pointed the finger at Iran for that attack, an allegation vehemently rejected by Tehran.
In response to the incident, the US military launched the deadly air raids on Iraq’s PMU, which Washington and its allies claim is an ally of the Islamic Republic.
By Gordon Duff
The
attack Trump claims to be retaliating against was against an Iraqi
base, not an American base, an attack by ISIS where an American oil
worker was killed on an Exxon oil facility…where oil has been
stolen from Iraq for years.
By
the term “contractor,” the US is careful not to identify who he
actually worked for and there is absolutely no reason for any
Americans to be in Kirkuk. Iraq seized the K1 base which was taken
from ISIS and their Kurdish allies in 2017. The Kurds have, since
that time, threaten the base and were most likely complicit in
staging the recent attack.
From the BBC
It is also more than possible that, if ISIS and Kurdish forces attacked K1, they were aided by Israeli commandos who are now training Kurdish troops and who have largely replaced the US as the force backing the Erbil government.
From
the Times of Israel, 2019:
“Israel
has been providing aid to the Kurds in northern Syria since the US
withdrawal from the area, a senior Israeli politician said Wednesday,
warning that their defeat would allow Iran to further entrench itself
in the area.
‘Israel
has received many requests for assistance, mainly in the diplomatic
and humanitarian realm,’ Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hatovely
told the Knesset Wednesday in remarks reported by
the Reuters
news agency ‘We identify with the deep distress of the Kurds, and we
are assisting them through a range of channels.'”
The
KI base, held by the Iraqi military and representative groups of both
Sunni and Shia militias, is tasked with keeping Kurd in check.
However, the Israeli website, Debka Files, has published articles and
maps carefully citing the US domination of Kirkuk through K1,
something sources on the ground find quite astounding.
“We
haven’t seen an American in months.”
When
ISIS hit Iraq in early 2014, the Kurds joined with ISIS against
Baghdad and seized oil fields around Kirkuk and began shipping oil
into Turkey, not by truck but by pipeline.
To
provide cover, Turkey claimed the pipeline had been destroyed in an
explosion but in reality, Turkey, working with Azerbaijan, used
“pigs” that identified the stolen oil as Azerbaijani while the
money went to Erdogan family members, Kurdish leaders and ISIS with
key American political leaders, neocons, getting a cut of the action.
This
wasn’t a military base….but rather in Kirkuk, at Iraq’s oil
fields, hundreds of miles from any US military facility and hundreds
of miles from the facilities Trump ordered attacked.
Macgregor
says Trump was misinformed, we say it is worse, so much worse. This
is the US retaliating against Iraq for an ISIS attack where an
American oil worker was killed.
The
attack was using a Romanian built 122mm rocket, one supplied to ISIS
by the US. All nations use similar launchers but most are supplied
through Turkey and Ukraine by US allied fake NGO’s to terrorist
groups in both Syria and Iraq.
Iran
builds its own missiles, and doesn’t buy them from Romania. The
US, however, does.
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