News / Iraq / Foreign Policy

Iraqis slam US interference, threats against resistance leaders

Friday, 14 July 2023 7:40 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 14 July 2023 9:43 PM ]

Iraqi protesters demonstrate near the Green Zone gate in central Baghdad, July 14, 2023. (Photo by Shafaq news agency)

People in the Iraqi capital Baghdad have taken to the streets near the US embassy in condemnation of Washington’s reported scheme to assassinate resistance figures and its interference in Iraq’s domestic affairs.

Recent reports by US media suggested that Washington plans to assassinate the leaders of anti-terror resistance groups in Iraq, particularly the Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba. Washington claims the group was behind a deadly drone strike on US forces in Syria in March.

The protesters on Friday voiced discontent with the meddlesome behavior of US Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski. They demanded that the government and parliament publicly declare their positions on the US embassy, according to the Iraqi news agency Shafaq.

The demonstrators said the gathering was only the beginning and more could come.

Security was tight in the areas surrounding the Green Zone of Baghdad, where the embassy is located.

In late 2019, Iraqi protesters breached the outer wall of the heavily fortified US embassy headquarters. That marked the first breach since the embassy's construction following the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. That protest was in response to US airstrikes targeting the sites of anti-Deash resistance groups.

In January 2020, the United States assassinated Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iraqi anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units, along with Iran’s top anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. The act of terror added to the already intense anti-US sentiment in Iraq.

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