TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club(YJC)-The US embassy in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad was evacuated on Tuesday after thousands of angry demonstrators gathered outside the gates of the compound to condemn Washington’s fatal military strike that targeted Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
On Sunday, five facilities run by the Iraqi PMU forces in Anbar province and neighboring Syria were targeted in the attack, which has left casualties, including over a dozen people dead with scores injured.
US officials claimed the attack came in response to a rocket strike on Friday which killed a “US civilian contractor.” They said the attack targeted an Iraqi military base housing US and Iraqi forces in the Arab country’s north.
Washington has accused the Islamic Republic of being behind both the Friday rocket attack as well as anti-US protests in Iraq, accusations which Iran has vehemently rejected.