US Ambassador, Staff Flee Baghdad Embassy amid Angry Protests Over Airstrike on PMU

By Staff, Agencies

The American Embassy in Baghdad has been evacuated after thousands of angry Iraqi demonstrators gathered outside the gates of the compound to condemn Washington’s fatal military aggression that targeted Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units [PMU].

Also on Tuesday, Iraqis held a massive funeral procession in the capital Baghdad for the victims of the US air raids, which killed 27 PMU fighters from the Hezbollah Brigades faction and injured over 51 others in Anbar Province.

Meanwhile, thousands of angry protests gathered outside the US diplomatic mission in Baghdad to condemn the assault, with the demonstrators chanting ‘Death to America’ and burning US flags.

The protesters further held up posters calling for the US mission to be shut down and for the parliament to order US occupation forces to leave Iraq.

“Parliament should oust US troops, or else we will,” one poster said.

Reuters cited two Iraqi Foreign Ministry sources as saying that the US ambassador and other staff have been evacuated from the embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad as protests rage outside.

The ambassador and staff left out of security concerns. One official said a few embassy protection staff remained, according to the Reuters.

Iraqi protesters, according to the AFP, breached the outer wall of the high-security compound on Tuesday, prompting the American forces deployed inside to fire tear gas and flash bangs to disperse the crowds.

The protesters pulled security cameras off the wall as Iraqi security forces tried to keep them back.

Earlier in the day, Iraqi lawmakers chanted anti-US slogans during a parliamentary session.