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Rockets fired at US embassy in Iraq

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What happened: On Sunday evening five rockets hit a river bank near the US embassy in Baghdad, with one rocket landing inside the embassy compound.

  • According to the US Joint Operations Command, the rockets caused no serious injuries or damage, but AFP news agency citing a security source said three of the rockets “directly hit the US embassy,” including a cafeteria at dinner time. The report of the direct hit could not be independently verified. It was the third rocket attack on the embassy compound this month and the perpetrators were not immediately known.
  • Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi swiftly condemned the attack in a statement, calling it an “aggression” that could “drag Iraq into becoming a war zone”.
  • The attack followed renewed protests in Iraq. Twelve people have been killed and 230 others injured over the past three days, the Independent High Commission for Human Rights of Iraq said Sunday.  Nine protesters were killed in Baghdad and three others in the southern city of Nasiriyah, about 350 km south of Baghdad, according to the statement.
  • At least 28 demonstrators were reported wounded by Iraqi security forces in the first hours of Sunday’s street rallies. According to protesters, Iraqi security forces used live ammunition and tear gas as they worked to disperse hundreds of anti-government protesters in al-Khalani Square, Baghdad over the weekend.

Context: Iraq is witnessing some of its worst violence and unrest since 2011. The mass protests started in October against widespread government corruption, poor public services and unemployment. At least 600 protesters have been killed since the unrest began, says Amnesty International.

  • Iraq has already been drawn into a worrying tit-for-tat between the US and Iran over the past month. Iran fired ballistic missiles at an Iraqi base where US troops were stationed in retaliation for a US drone strike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani outside Baghdad airport.
  • Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who galvanised his large support base to demand the withdrawal of US forces in Iraq following Soleimani’s death, announced in a statement on Friday night that he would no longer support anti-government protesters. Iraqi analysts believe that Sadr was using the protest movement as leverage in political negotiations among Iraq’s elites to select the next Prime Minister
  • However, the U-turn had the opposite effect as hundreds of protestors, mostly students, marched on Sunday in the capital and southern Iraq to show their continued support for the anti-government movement.

Looking ahead: With Sadr and his supporters out of the picture, the future of the anti-Government protest movement is uncertain. Sadr’s militia members had given protesters protective cover, but many will now be worried that their departure could lead to a fresh crackdown by the security forces. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq’s most revered Shiite cleric is still supporting the protests. Whether the movement survives or fades away may depend on what Sistani says in his Friday sermon, when a large protest is planned.