US protests Iranian-backed assaults on US facilities in Iraq

Five Katyusha rockets landed near the US embassy on Sunday in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone. The embassy’s cafeteria was damaged in the assault, which caused one injury.

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo complained vociferously to Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, Adil Abdul Mahdi, regarding continued attacks on US targets in Iraq by Iranian-backed militias.

In the latest incident, five Katyusha rockets landed near the US embassy on Sunday in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone. The embassy’s cafeteria was damaged in the assault, which caused one injury.

Read More: Fresh rocket attack hits US embassy grounds in Baghdad; Iraqi PM condemns it

Speaking on Monday to Abdul Mahdi by telephone, “Pompeo expressed his outrage at the continued assaults by Iran’s armed groups against US facilities in Iraq, including yesterday’s rocket attacks against our Embassy,” according to a statement State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus issued.

Pompeo “underlined once again that these attacks demonstrate a wanton disregard for Iraqi sovereignty” by Iran and “a failure to rein in these dangerous armed groups” by the Iraqi government, she said.

Abdul Mahdi had earlier criticized Sunday’s attack, condemning it as “an act of aggression,” and Pompeo expressed his appreciation for “Abdul Mahdi’s commitment to strengthen security to protect American personnel and diplomatic facilities.”

Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurdish official who served as Iraq’s first Foreign Minister after the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein and later served as Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, described Sunday’s attack in a tweet as “a very dangerous game by #PMF uncontrolled factions to galvanize the tense situation,” as he condemned the actions of the Iranian-backed militias.

Pompeo also described the attack “as an attempt to distract Iraqi and international attention away from the brutal suppression of peaceful Iraqi protestors by Iran and its proxies.”

The suppression of the protests, ongoing since October, by Iraqi security forces has intensified since Friday and has involved the use of live fire, precipitating a joint protest by 16 western embassies in Baghdad.

Read More: Foreign embassy representatives in Iraq condemn use of excessive force against protesters in joint statement

Pompeo “encouraged” Abdul Mahdi “to maintain Iraqi sovereignty,” while he “reaffirmed the United States’ enduring commitment to the Iraqi people” and “our willingness to discuss the scope of our forces in Iraq over time,” along with “our desire for a strong and prosperous Iraq, as outlined in our bilateral Strategic Framework Agreement,” which the Iraqi government approved in late 2008, during the last days of the George W. Bush administration.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany