Iraq air strike follow-up

Dozens of protesters broke into the US embassy compound in Iraqi capital Baghdad on Tuesday after smashing a main door and setting fire to a reception area.

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Witnesses at the scene reported flames rising from inside the compound and at least three US soldiers on the roof of the main building inside embassy.

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The US ambassador to Iraq and other staff were evacuated from the embassy.

Earlier, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the embassy to protest US air attacks that killed 25 fighters from an Iran-backed Shia group in Iraq this week.

Shouting "Down, Down USA!" the crowd hurled water bottles and smashed security cameras outside the embassy grounds.

Iraq's caretaker prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said that crowds 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.

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Tuesday's attempted embassy storming took place after mourners held funerals for fighters killed in a Baghdad neighbourhood, after which they marched on to the heavily fortified Green Zone and kept walking till they reached the embassy.

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The protesters raised flags of the powerful paramilitary group Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces), of which Kataib Hezbollah [the target of US air strikes two days ago] is part, and several people climbed over the wall of the embassy and chanted "death to America" and "no, no America", witnesses said.

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Speaking from the scene in Baghdad, Al Jazeera's Simona Foltyn said there was no indication of an armed confrontation so far.

"This entire funeral procession, consisting mostly of PMF members and their followers, has entered through these gates without any resistance whatsoever from the Iraqi security forces that are supposed to guard the Green Zone," she said, speaking from outside the US Embassy.

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The US attack - the largest one targeting an Iraqi state-sanctioned group in recent years - and the calls for retaliation represent a new escalation in the proxy war between the US and Iran playing out in the Middle East. The US military said "precision defensive strikes" were conducted against five sites belonging to Kataib Hezbollah, which is a separate force from the Lebanese group Hezbollah, in Iraq and Syria.

  alJazeera

Two sources at the demonstration witnessed the attempt to break into the embassy, adding that security personnel fired tear gas to repel the attack. Video and photos on social media show demonstrators smashing the windows of the embassy and burning items outside its walls.

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Questions have also been raised as to whether Iraqi forces allowed the protesters to reach the US embassy, a highly fortified building in a ares that is usually restricted.

The strikes and protests also come at a time of high tensions between the US and Iran, and have stoked fears of a new proxy war in the Middle East.

Washington has tightened the economic squeeze on Tehran this year through its "maximum pressure" campaign, while Iran has responded with what it calls for "maximum resistance," including reducing its compliance to the international nuclear deal.

The Trump administration pulled the US out of that deal in May 2018, sparking a campaign of provocation between the two nations.

  CNN