Eyeing Washington’s withdrawal of 500 more troops from Iraq, pro-Iran factions have boldly resumed attacks on the US embassy there despite suspicions outgoing President Donald Trump could strike back.
Just as the US was announcing it would further shrink its roughly 3,000-strong force, a volley of rockets targeted the American diplomatic compound in Baghdad late Tuesday.
The attack ruptured a truce agreed last month that put a stop to a year of rockets and roadside bombs on Western interests across Iraq, which both US and Iraqi officials have blamed on hardline groups close to Tehran.
While no group claimed the latest attack, sources within that network of factions, which calls itself the “Islamic Resistance,” admitted to AFP that they were involved.
With the US drawing down, a White House handover two months away and an Iraqi premier hostile to them, the factions recalculated and ramped up, experts said.
“It’s a clear escalation,” said Hamdi Malik, an expert on Iraqi paramilitary groups.
While the groups had previously “aimed to miss, fearing retaliation,” Tuesday’s attack used the heavier and more accurate Grad rockets, he told AFP.
“It’s a message to both the US and Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, who they see as an American stooge,” he added.
Read the article in International Business Times (Australian edition).