Addis Ababa, January 1, 2020 (FBC) – The United States said on Tuesday it was sending additional troops to the Middle East, after protesters stormed its embassy compound in Iraq.
Angered by US air raids that killed two dozen paramilitary fighters on Sunday, hundreds of men spilled through checkpoints in the high-security Green Zone on Tuesday, demanding the removal of American troops from Iraq.
Reacting to the attack, US President Donald Trump said he held Tehran “fully responsible” for the incident, and said the protesters “will be held fully responsible”, he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
“In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the attack was “orchestrated by terrorists”, one of whom he named as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Al-Muhandis has been identified as the second-in-command of the Tehran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) paramilitary group which includes Kataib Hezbollah, the group that was hit in the US air raids.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in a statement that about 750 troops from a rapid response unit of the 82nd Airborne Division are prepared to deploy over the next several days to the region.
The deployment of 750 soldiers is in addition to 14,000 US troops who have been deployed to the Gulf region since May in response to concerns about Iran, and the reported attacks on commercial shipping in the Gulf.
Meanwhile, a US official, who provided unreleased details to the Associated Press news agency on condition of anonymity, said the full brigade of about 4,000 soldiers may deploy.
On Sunday, the US launched air attacks on sites in Iraq and Syria belonging to Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia, that Washington said was in retaliation for the killing of a US contractor.
At least 25 fighters of Kataib Hezbollah were killed in the attack.
Kataib Hezbollah, through its spokesman Mohammed Muhi, denied carrying out the attack on the US facility.
That triggered the protest and storming of the US embassy compound on Tuesday.
Source: Aljazeera