Pro-Iran protesters attack US embassy over deadly Iraq strikes

Iraqi supporters of pro-Iran factions attacked US embassy in Baghd on Tuesday, breaching its outer wall and chanting "Death to America!" in anger over weekend air strikes that killed two dozen fighters. It was first time in years protesters have been able to reach US embassy, which is sheltered behind a series of checkpoints in high-security Green Zone.

A stream of men in military fatigues, as well as some women, marched through those checkpoints to embassy walls with apparent reaction from Iraqi security forces. US President Donald Trump in a Twitter mess accused Iran of "orchestrating" attack and said it "will be held fully responsible", but he also said he expected Iraq "to use its forces to protect embassy". demonstrators waved flags in support of Hashed al-Shaabi, a mostly Shiite network of Iraqi armed groups that has received training and weapons from powerful neighbour Iran.

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y threw rocks and wrenched security cameras off walls, igring calls over megaphones to leave embassy compound. In response, US guards fired an initial volley of bullets, n switched to tear gas and flash bang stun grenes to disperse crowd. Hashed said at least 62 people were wounded.

Caretaker prime minister el Abdel Mahdi said that crowds that h stormed US embassy should leave compound "immediately". "We recall that any aggression or harassment of foreign embassies will be firmly prohibited by security forces," Abdel Mahdi's office said several hours after attack began. Following his statement, some of crowd pulled back but ors set up tents, swearing to pursue a sit-in.

demonstrators were protesting US air strikes that killed at least 25 fighters from a hardline Hashed faction kwn as Kataeb Hezbollah (Hezbollah Briges) on Sunday. Those strikes were in response to a volley of 36 rockets last week that killed one US contractor at an Iraqi base, first American casualty in a string of rocket attacks on US troops in Iraq. United States has around 5,200 troops deployed across Iraq to train security forces and prevent any resurgence of Islamic State jihist group.

rocket attacks have t been claimed but US security assessments have largely blamed m on Kataeb Hezbollah. Following dely strikes, Iraqi government anunced three days of mourning while Kataeb Hezbollah and or pro-Iran factions in Hashed demanded "withdrawal of American enemy". Protesters echoed those calls on Tuesday, carrying posters reing: "Parliament should oust US troops, or else we will." Ors carried banners with Trump's face crossed out.

y scrawled " to America!" and "Soleimani is my commander" on embassy walls, referring to a leing commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps and Tehran's pointman for Iraq, Major General Qasem Soleimani. Among those at protests were Iraq's National Security viser Faleh al-Fayyh -- who is also he of Hashed -- and or top Hashed officials.

Some Hashed figures drew parallels between Tuesday's attack and host crisis at US embassy in Tehran in 1979. US embassy in Iraq is alrey operating at a fraction of its full diplomatic staffing after State Department pulled out n-essential employees in May. US ambassor Matw Tueller has been outside Iraq for two weeks on holiday but or staff were present and h t been evacuated, a diplomatic source told AFP.

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US shut down its consulate in sourn port city of Basra last year after indirect fire it blamed on Iran-backed factions. It still operates a consulate in rrn Kurdish city of Arbil. Iraq h long feared being caught in middle of escalating tensions between its two main allies, United States and Iran. But w it appears ties between Washington and Baghd are fraying fast, with Abdel Mahdi's government threatening to summon US ambassor.

Dozens of lawmakers also called on government to review an agreement allowing US troop deployment, saying strikes amount to a violation of sovereignty that renders pact obsolete. United States, meanwhile, accused Iraq of failing to "protect" US interests in country. US defence officials have told AFP that pro-Iran factions w pose a greater threat than IS because of repeated rocket attacks. "This may well be low point of US policy in Iraq," said Iraq expert Fanar Hd of Singapore University's Middle East Institute. "That national security viser, MPs, a former minister and he of one of most powerful parliamentary blocs are involved speaks volumes about failure of US policy and nature of Iraqi state y helped create," Hd said.