About 4, people, including 1, Americans, work at the embassy and diplomats are considering how soon it may need to be evacuated if the talks fail, the Times said. Five current and former officials reportedly described a tense and worried atmosphere inside the embassy, with some invoking the fall of Saigon that ended the Vietnam War and the humiliating helicopter evacuation of Americans from the roof of the US Embassy there.
The Taliban recently seized control of ten provincial capitals and US officials believe the Islamic extremists may retake Kabul within months of the Aug. Price repeatedly refused to say how many State Department staffers were being pulled out of Kabul.
We have not left any ambiguity about that. So developed a curious triangular relationship, with the US and Iran deeply suspicious of each other's motives and eager that their rival's influence should be reduced.
Iraq steers a sometimes bumpy course between them that has got bumpier in recent weeks following a wave of domestic protest inside Iraq at the government's incompetence, which has an element of hostility to Iranian meddling too. Iran meanwhile has built up its links to Shia militias in the country, one of which is judged by the Americans to have been responsible for the rocket attacks against its bases - hence the US air strikes.
The Americans see Tehran as behind the attacks and want the Iraqi authorities to ensure the safety of US facilities. But with the Trump administration sending out conflicting signals about its future role in the region; in part a desire to limit its involvement and in part a message of deterrence against Tehran - it is easy to be confused. And amid this confusion the danger of a direct clash between Washington and Tehran only grows. What sparked the protests? Tuesday's protest took place after funerals were held for militia fighters killed in US strikes.
The militia was an Iranian-backed force, the Kataib Hezbollah militia in western Iraq and eastern Syria. At least 25 fighters died in the US bombing of their bases on Sunday, which Washington said was a retaliation for the death of an American civilian worker killed during a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base. In response, an angry crowd breached a reception area in the US embassy compound, leading US troops to fire teargas to repel them.
US marines were sent to the Baghdad embassy to boost security. US Defence Secretary Mark Esper later announced that about soldiers would be deployed to the region.
The US said the militia had carried out repeated attacks on Iraqi bases that host US-led coalition forces fighting the Islamic State group. In response, it added, US forces conducted "precision defensive strikes" on Sunday against five facilities, including weapon stores and command and control locations, that would degrade its ability to conduct future attacks. Since , the US has designated Kataib Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation and listed its leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis as a "global terrorist".
It was staged and had the approval of the Iraqi government. But they had to let them get far enough to let off steam and to dissipate some of the anger in those ranks. Iran, however, doesn't want things to go so far that the U. Instead, as it has done for months now -- since Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal and implemented a sanctions regime far more biting than any before -- it pokes at the U.
First, there were attacks on oil tankers, then the downing of a U. Iran escalated in September, with a massive attack on a Saudi oil facility and scattered rocket attacks on targets in Iraq where U. Iranian leaders will keep poking at the U. Turmoil in Iraq and scenes of smoke and fire outside the U. But it won't last forever. The risk is when it runs out, will Iran push too far with its next jab or will the U.
The next chapter isn't written yet, but one thing seems certain: Iraq will be left to bear the bloody brunt of it. We'll notify you here with news about.
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