BAGHDAD: Dozens of angry Iraqi Shiite militia supporters broke into the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday.
They smashed the main door and setting fire to a reception area, prompting tear gas and sounds of gunfire.
Scenes of flames rising from inside the compound and at least three U.S. soldiers on the roof of the main embassy building were seen.
There was a fire at the reception area near the parking lot of the compound but it was unclear what had caused it.
A man on a loudspeaker urged the mob not to enter the compound, saying: “The message was delivered.”
The embassy attack, one of the worst in recent memory, followed deadly U.S. airstrikes on Sunday that killed 25 fighters of the Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Kataeb Hezbollah.
The U.S. military said the airstrikes were in retaliation for last week’s killing of an American contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base that it had blamed on the militia.
(Agencies)
Comment