Orders for the Hashd militia to withdraw from the US embassy .. and a faction that refuses
01 Jan 2020A pro-Iranian faction refused to withdraw from the US embassy after the PMF militia ordered their supporters to retreat in response to a government invitation.
Iraqi media said that some elements began withdrawing from the vicinity of the American embassy in Baghdad.
The crowd called in a statement, “The masses located near the embassy to withdraw in respect of the decision of the Iraqi government, which ordered it.”
The crowd’s invitation did not receive a response from all the militias loyal to Iran, after an official in the pro-Iranian Hezbollah Brigades confirmed to AFP that they were continuing to sit in front of the embassy.
On Tuesday, elements of the popular crowd installed some 50 tents with sanitary supplies for camping around the embassy, hours after they attacked.
The pro-Iranian elements who sit inside the Green Zone have tried again to approach the American embassy, while chanting anti-American slogans.
For some time, the US embassy security forces fired tear gas canisters to disperse hundreds of them who were burning the American flag.
Washington has announced the dispatch of an additional 750 soldiers in the Middle East, to be deployed “probably” later in Iraq.
The Washington embassy was attacked by members of the popular crowd, and pictures and videos showed that some of them were wearing the uniforms of militias, especially the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, Badr Organization, and Asaib Ahl al-Haq.
The attack began by storming militia elements into the Green Zone gate, which includes diplomatic missions, government offices, and the Iraqi parliament, after officers failed to persuade the intruders to retreat.
And through dozens of the crowd, in addition to vehicles carrying more of them, to the Green Zone, which is supposed to be one of the most fortified areas in Iraq, and they advanced towards the American embassy, then attacked it and stormed its outer yard.
