From the Liveblog of
Thursday, January 2, 2020
Elite Iraqi troops secure US embassy after attack
Elite Iraqi troops have deployed to secure the US embassy, a day after a pro-Iran mob laid siege to it in dramatic scenes that overshadowed months of anti-government grassroots protests.
More than a dozen black armored vehicles of the US-trained Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service deploy on the embassy’s streets in the capital’s Green Zone to reinforce security there.
The unprecedented attack on the American mission in Baghdad — in which intruders threw rocks, laid fires and graffitied walls — sparked fears of a wider proxy war between Iran and the United States, both of them close allies of Iraq.
Supporters of Iraq’s powerful Hashed al-Shaabi military force laid siege to the embassy in outrage at US air strikes that killed 25 of their fighters, but pulled back on Wednesday after an order from the group.
— AFP
The Times of Israel Community.