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Baghdad – Iran and its Shiite militias in Iraq denied their responsibility to attack the Green Zone in the heart of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, where the US embassy is based, with Katyusha rockets.
While various pieces of evidence and analyzes indicate that Tehran is often the beneficiary of such attacks designed to disrupt the comfort of the US diplomatic and military presence in Iraq within the power struggle it is waging against Washington, it seemed that the immediate interest of the Iranians require the application of a circumstantial tactic during the transitional period of the end of the US president’s administration. His term, Donald Trump, to the administration of his predecessor, Joe Biden, is based on continuing to send messages to Washington and its allies, while at the same time avoiding provoking them and avoiding any irate response from them that may primarily target Shiite militias. and their top leaders in Iraq.
Tehran hopes that the Democratic president-elect’s stance on the matter will be more flexible than that of its Republican predecessor, and that it will ease the severe sanctions imposed by the United States.
And operations targeting US interests in Iraq could serve as an implicit threat to Biden that he will face hardship in Iraq if he does not abandon his predecessor’s policy toward Iran. However, Tehran does not appear to want to explicitly announce that threat, with the possible consequences of the operation for itself and its local allies in Iraq.
To avoid American anger, following the operation to launch eight Katyusha rockets at the vicinity of the American embassy in Baghdad, the Iraqi Brigades of Hezbollah, one of the fiercest Shiite militias in Iraq and the one most linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, turned to condemn the operation.
“The bombing of the Embassy of Evil (United States) at this time is uncontrolled behavior, and the competent authorities must follow up on the perpetrators and arrest them,” the brigades said in a statement posted on their official website.
In the same statement, the militia added: “We condemn the indiscriminate firing of the military barracks against the embassy because it represents a real threat to the lives of civilians,” calling for “the evacuation of demonstrations of US military activity in residential areas. safe in Baghdad. “
The brigades’ position was almost cloned from the position of Iran, whose Foreign Ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatib Zadeh, described the missile attack on the US embassy in Baghdad on Sunday as “a suspicious matter.”
“The attack on diplomatic and residential buildings is unacceptable,” Zadeh said at a press conference broadcast on Iranian television, “but the nature and timing of the attack, and the statement issued by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo , show that the moment is very suspicious and suspicious and that they have already prepared a statement to issue it. “
Hadi al-Amiri also condemned the leader of the Badr Militia, linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, in a statement of “unjustified bombing operations under any pretext”, calling on the security services to take the necessary measures to enforce the law. .
The attack on the Green Zone with Katyusha came as the first anniversary of the assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi People’s Mobilization Forces field commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in an American airstrike near from Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.
Since then, Iran and its affiliated Iraqi militias have raised the slogan of revenge for Soleimani and Al-Muhandis, regarding the expulsion of Americans from Iraq as the best form of revenge, which has already been worked through the implementation of dozens of attacks. , either at the headquarters of the US embassy in Baghdad or at military bases where US forces are present. As well as the attempts to attack supply convoys of the international coalition against ISIS led by the United States.
Washington threatened to respond militarily to Iran if it attacked any of its interests in the region on the anniversary of Soleimani’s assassination. The commander of US forces in the Middle East, General Frank MacKenzie, said during a tour of the region that his country was ready to respond should Iran attack it on the first anniversary of the assassination of the Iranian general.
“We are ready to defend ourselves and our friends and allies in the region, and we are ready to respond if necessary,” MacKenzie said in his address to several journalists.
“I think we are in a very good position and that we will be prepared, whatever the Iranians and their allies decide to do,” he added.
As for the United States, there is no question that Iran and its local allies in Iraq are responsible for attacking the US embassy. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet on Twitter: “Iran-backed militias blatantly attacked again in Baghdad, wounding Iraqi civilians.”
“The people of Iraq deserve to stand trial for these attackers, and these corrupt criminals must stop their destabilizing actions,” Pompeo added.
On Sunday, the Iraqi army and the US embassy in Iraq announced that at least eight Katyusha rockets landed in the heavily fortified Green Zone in the capital Baghdad in an attack on the embassy, causing minor damage to the complex.
The US embassy condemned the attack and called on “all Iraqi political and government leaders to take steps to prevent such attacks and hold those responsible accountable.” “The US embassy confirms that the missiles that struck the international zone led to the defense systems of the embassy,” he said in a statement. The embassy compound was slightly damaged, but there were no injuries or injuries.
