Protesters are storming the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad today. This comes after U.S. airstrikes that killed more than two dozen people affiliated with an Iran-backed militia group in Iraq. CBS News writes:
The U.S. military carried out the strikes Sunday against the Iranian-backed Kataeb Hezbollah militia, calling it retaliation for last week’s killing of an American contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base that it blamed on the group.
The U.S. attack — the largest targeting an Iraqi state-sanctioned militia in recent years — and the militia’s vow to retaliate, represented a new escalation in the proxy war between the U.S. and Iran playing out in the Middle East.
The New York Times says, “Protesters broke into the heavily guarded compound of the United States Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday and lit fires inside to express their anger:”
The men did not enter the main embassy buildings and later withdrew from the compound, joining thousands of protesters and militia fighters outside who chanted “Death to America,” threw rocks, covered the walls with graffiti and demanded that the United States withdraw its forces from Iraq.
The situation remained combustible, with protesters vowing to camp outside the compound indefinitely.
Donald Trump wrote: 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!
The US embassy is reportedly under lockdown but has not been evacuated.
Watch more from ABC above.