Photos reveal extensive damage to US Embassy in Baghdad as American soldiers rush to region - USA TODAY

John Bacon USA TODAY

Published 9:35 AM EST Jan 2, 2020

An uneasy calm enveloped the U.S. Embassy in Iraq on Thursday as new images from the scene revealed extensive damage following days of sometimes violent protests by Iranian-backed militia members and their supporters.

The Pentagon said it was sending hundreds of troops to the region, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would delay a trip to Central Asia to focus on the situation in Baghdad.

"Secretary Pompeo must postpone his visit to Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Cyprus due to the need for the Secretary to be in Washington, D.C., to continue monitoring the ongoing situation in Iraq and ensure the safety and security of Americans in the Middle East," spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. "Secretary Pompeo’s trip will be rescheduled in the near future and he looks forward to the visit at that time."

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said 750 soldiers were immediately deploying. At Fort Bragg in North Carolina, hundreds of paratroopers boarded C-17 aircraft bound for the region as part as the Immediate Response Force.

Esper said additional soldiers from the force are prepared to deploy over the next several days. He called the deployment “an appropriate and precautionary action taken in response to increased threat levels against U.S. personnel and facilities.”

“The United States will protect our people and interests anywhere they are found around the world,” Esper said.

Demonstrators began to disperse Wednesday in 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 the area, 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 as U.S. combat 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.

Pompeo defended the airstrikes as a "decisive response" to a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base that killed an American contractor last week.

President Donald Trump, on Twitter, accused Iran of orchestrating the embassy attack.

"Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will," Trump tweeted. "They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!"

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticized the U.S. airstrikes on the Iran-backed Iraqi militia. 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."

Contributing: Grace Hauck, Tom Vanden Brook and Doyle Rice, USA TODAY; Rachael Riley, Fayetteville Observer; The Associated Press