Protesters try to storm U.S. Embassy in Baghdad after deadly airstrikes
Hundreds of protesters attempted to storm the United States embassy in Iraq on Tuesday after American airstrikes killed dozens of fighters from an Iran-backed militia group.
U.S. fighter jets bombed weapons and munitions depots in Iraq and Syria that Washington said were linked to Kataeb Hezbollah, a militia group Washington blames for attacks on allied bases in recent months.
The latest of almost a dozen such incidents over the past eight weeks came on Friday when a rocket attack killed a U.S. contractor and injured four other American service members.
The retaliatory U.S. airstrikes this weekend killed 25 militia fighters and injured dozens more. On Tuesday, a large crowd gathered in Baghdad after mourners held a funeral for some of the dead. They marched into the heavily fortified Green Zone and kept walking till they reached the sprawling U.S. Embassy there.
They chanted "Down, Down USA!" while hurling water bottles, smashing security cameras and trying to push inside the embassy grounds, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. airstrikes have been met with an angry reaction from both Iran and Iraq.
The U.S. has some 5,000 troops in Iraq train and assist government troops in the fight against the Islamic State militant group. But the Iraqi government is also allied with a powerful network of militia groups, many of which are backed by or linked to Tehran.
Tehran called the U.S. airstrikes "terrorism" and Iraq called them a "violation" of its sovereignty. The militia targeted has vowed to respond.
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