HEADLINE:
Rockets hit US embassy
in Baghdad, 3 wounded1
As of mid-morning US Eastern time 27 JAN 2020,apparently no organization has claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to National Public Radio (NPR)2, The State Department did not directly blame Tehran for the rocket strikes in the Iraqi capital, but the spokesperson's statement made reference to Iranian threats in the region and past attacks by Iranian-backed militias on US interests. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
"The security situation remains tense and Iranian-backed armed groups remain a threat. So, we remain vigilant," the spokesperson said. Since September there have been more than 14 attacks by Iran and Iranian-supported militias on US personnel in Iraq, according to the State Department.
The spokesperson said the State Department would not comment further on the security situation in Baghdad.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas's 10th congressional district), the lead Republican on the House Foreign Affairs committee, said in a tweet Sunday that he is "closely monitoring reports of a rocket attack targeting the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad."
Other committee members3 apparently had not reacted publicly to the attack.
The Washington Post 4 claimed
- A suspected militia attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad wounded one person late Sunday, officials said, underscoring the growing risks to personnel there amid calls for an end to the American military presence.
Blame Trump According to Louisa Loveluck5, the Post’s Baghdad bureau chief,
- Late-night rocket or mortar attacks on Baghdad’s Green Zone, home to government buildings and embassies, have become commonplace as the Trump administration increases financial and political pressure on Iran, which backs a number of militias in Iraq.
Ms. Loveluck provided some background on what led up to the attack.
- Sunday’s attack came almost exactly a month after a similar attack killed an American contractor on a military base in northern Iraq, sparking an intense round of brinkmanship that pushed the United States and Iran to the edge of open conflict.
In late December, after the United States launched retaliatory airstrikes on an Iranian-backed militia, Kataib Hezbollah, its supporters responded with a brief siege of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The Times of Israel6 reported that (so far), None of the attacks has been claimed, but Washington has repeatedly blamed Iran-backed military factions in Iraq.
The Times, quoting Agence France-Presse, notes that
- Some 5,200 Americans are stationed in Iraq to lead the global coalition fighting the Islamic State group, but the US strike on Baghdad has rallied top Iraqi figures around a joint call to order them out.
Vehemently anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr organised a mass rally in Baghdad on Friday, where thousands of his supporters called for American troops to leave.
Sadr had previously backed separate anti-regime protests sweeping Iraq’s capital and south, even though he controls the largest bloc in parliament and top ministerial posts.
Bolstered by his own protest on Friday, Sadr announced he was dropping support for the youth-dominated reform campaign rocking the country since October.
Fox News7 reports that the rocket hit the compounds mess (dining) hall.
- “The security situation remains tense and Iranian-backed armed groups remain a threat. So, we remain vigilant,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Hoshyar Zebari blamed the rocket attack on an “unruly militia.”
“The Embassy restaurant or canteen was damaged and burned. This is a very dangerous game by #PMF uncontrolled factions to galvanize the tense situation. It must stop,” he tweeted, referring to the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq.
Sunday’s rocket attack came after Iran launched ballistic missiles on two military bases in Iraq where U.S. troops have been stationed, in retaliation for a drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top military general. Dozens of troops were said to have been diagnosed with brain injuries, but no one was killed in the attacks.
CNN8 reports that
- There have been numerous rocket attacks on Baghdad's Green Zone, where the embassies of the US and several other western countries are located, and the area surrounding it in recent months. However, the whole of Iraq is on a heightened state of alert as tensions between the US and Iran have dramatically increased in recent weeks after the US killing of key Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iran's retaliatory missile attack on an Iraqi base housing US troops.
The State Department did not directly blame Tehran for the rocket strikes in the Iraqi capital, but the spokesperson's statement made reference to Iranian threats in the region and past attacks by Iranian-backed militias on US interests. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Earlier this month, the US embassy was the site of mass protests in response to US airstrikes on an Iranian-backed militia group at the end of December.
Those strikes were launched in retaliation to attacks by an Iranian-backed Shia militia group known as Kataib Hezbollah, which had injured numerous American military personnel, according to US officials.
In early January, Iran fired a number of missiles at two Iraqi bases housing US troops in retaliation for the American strike that killed Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad International airport.
On Friday the Pentagon revealed that 34 US service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries following the Iranian missile attack.
Sources
1. Rockets on embassy: https://tinyurl.com/s8vlgfn
2. NPR: https://tinyurl.com/twn87bx
3. Committee: https://tinyurl.com/ycabgu4s
4. WashPost: https://tinyurl.com/rmcejb5
5. Louisa Loveluck: https://tinyurl.com/rk4fduy
6. Times of Israel: https://tinyurl.com/vjkv84t
7. Fox News: https://tinyurl.com/vxzq5yt
8. CNN: https://tinyurl.com/sfncq42
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.
No comments:
Post a Comment