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.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said 750 soldiers were immediately deploying for the region. At Fort Bragg in North Carolina, hundreds of paratroopers boarded C-17 aircraft 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. interests.
“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 its supporters to leave the area, calling the demonstration a win for the group's fight to expel U.S. troops from Iraq.
Pompeo defended the airstrikes as a "decisive response" to weeks of militia rocket attacks targeting Iraqi bases that host U.S. troops, including one Friday that killed a U.S. contractor. Sunday's "defensive" airstrikes targeted three sites in Iraq and two in Syria that included weapon storage facilities and command and control locations, the Pentagon said.
Protests are nothing new in Baghdad, but most have targeted the Iraqi government and what Sunni Iraqis view as meddling by Iran's Shiite government.
James Piazza, a Penn State political science professor specializing in the Islamic world, said the clashes underscore the struggle in Iraq between the Shiite majority – long oppressed under Saddam Hussein – and Sunnis who make up about one-third of the nation of 40 million people.
"The PMU has vowed further acts of revenge against the U.S. for the airstrikes," Piazza told USA TODAY. "The recent events come on the heels of ongoing protests by mostly Sunni Iraqis who resent Iranian influence in Iraq. It may become impossible for the Iraqi government to balance Sunnis and Shiites."
The protest broke out Tuesday when 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. 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.
The protesters ultimately retreated from the compound, setting up a small tent city nearby with makeshift clinic and meals served out of pots.
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.
President Donald Trump, on Twitter, accused Iran of orchestrating the embassy attack. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticized the U.S. airstrikes and Trump’s allegations of Iranian involvement.
"If the Islamic Republic makes a decision to confront any country, it will do it directly," Khamenei said.
Contributing: Grace Hauck, Tom Vanden Brook and Doyle Rice, USA TODAY; Rachael Riley, Fayetteville Observer; The Associated Press
2020-01-02 15:37:03Z
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