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Tear gas fired at pro-Iran protesters outside US embassy in Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Jan 1, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Security forces at the US embassy in
Baghdad fired tear gas early Wednesday to disperse pro-Iran demonstrators who
had spent the night outside the mission’s gates, an AFP photographer said.
Thousands of supporters of Iraqi armed factions close to Iran had massed
at the embassy on Tuesday in outrage over US air strikes that killed 25 pro-
Iran fighters at the weekend.
They marched easily through checkpoints in the usually high-security Green
Zone to reach the embassy, broke through a security reception area and
scribbled graffiti in support of Tehran.
Setting up some 50 tents and even portable bathrooms, hundreds of
demonstrators announced a sit-in at the embassy’s gates until US forces are
ousted from the country.
On Wednesday morning, the crowds drew closer to the single wall separating
them and the larger diplomatic compound, setting US flags on fire.
In response, security forces inside fired tear gas at the protesters,
several of whom were reported wounded and ferried away by ambulances.
A cordon of Iraqi security forces that had formed around the embassy
dissipated when the gas was fired.
But reinforcements from the federal police soon arrived and the brief
skirmishes calmed.
The US has blamed Iran for the attack but also pressured Iraqi security
forces to step up, alarmed that the mobs were able to reach the embassy so
easily.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said around 750 troops from a rapid response
unit of the 82nd Airborne Division were prepared to deploy over the next
several days to the region in response to the unrest.
Prior to the announcement, a US official told AFP that “up to 4,000
(troops) may ultimately be deployed”.
Overnight, the US flew a rapid response team of Marines into the embassy
to reinforce security there.
No US personnel were injured and US officials said there were no plans to
evacuate the mission.
Ambassador Matthew Tueller, who had been on holiday, was said to be on his
way back to the embassy.
By Wednesday morning, Iraqi security forces had reimposed normal security
measures along the perimeter of the Green Zone, which is usually inaccessible
without a badge.
But they did not oust the crowds that had spent the night inside.
The mob attack put a focus on the strained US-Iraqi relationship, which
officials from both countries have described to AFP as the “coldest” in
years.
Baghdad has close ties to both Iran and the United States and has feared
being caught in the throes of escalating tensions between the two sides.
The dramatic developments outside the embassy on Tuesday sparked
comparisons with both the 1979 hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran and
the deadly 2012 attack on the US mission in Libya’s Benghazi.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1528 hrs