Agencies

US President Donald Trump yesterday blamed Iran for “orchestrating” an attack on the US embassy in Baghdad and said he will hold Tehran responsible.

“Iran killed an American contractor, wounding many. We strongly responded, and always will. Now Iran is orchestrating an attack on the US Embassy in Iraq. They will be held fully responsible. In addition, we expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified,” Trump said in a Twitter post.

“We expect Iraq to use its forces to protect the Embassy, and so notified!” he tweeted.

Iraqi supporters of pro-Iran factions attacked the embassy early yesterday, breaching its outer wall and chanting “Death to America” in anger over weekend air strikes that killed two dozen fighters.

It was the first time in years that protesters have been able to reach the US embassy, which is sheltered behind a series of checkpoints in the high-security Green Zone. The embassy guards fired tear gas and stun grenades, Reuters witnesses said. The ambassador and other staff were evacuated.

The demonstrators were protesting against US air strikes that killed at least 25 fighters from a hardline Hashed faction known as Kataeb Hezbollah (Hezbollah Brigades) on Sunday.

Those strikes were in response to a 36-rocket attack last week that killed one American contractor at an Iraqi base, the latest in a string of attacks on areas where US troops are deployed.

They have not been claimed, but US security assessments have largely blamed them on Kataeb Hezbollah.

Caretaker prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi said that the crowds that had stormed the US embassy should leave the compound “immediately.”

“We recall that any aggression or harassment of foreign embassies will be firmly prohibited by the security forces,” Abdel Mahdi’s office said several hours after the attack began.

Relations between Washington and Tehran have deteriorated since the US in 2018 pulled out of the landmark Iran nuclear deal.

Trump has since imposed sweeping sanctions aimed at curbing the clerical regime’s regional influence.

Iraq had long feared being caught in the middle of escalating tensions between the two countries, which are its main allies, reports AFP.

Protesters yesterday carried posters reading: “Parliament should oust US troops, or else we will.”