The Pentagon will "immediately" send about 750 additional troops to the Middle East, "in response to recent events in Iraq," Defense Minister Mark Esper announced on Tuesday January 31 after the attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad during the day.
"About 750 soldiers will be deployed to the region immediately," he said in a statement, appearing to confirm information from an American official who said earlier that the United States had sent 500 soldiers to neighboring Kuwait. Iraq. "Additional forces" are ready to be deployed "in the coming days," added Mark Esper.
"This deployment is a precautionary and appropriate action in response to the growing threat levels against American personnel and installations, as we witnessed today in Baghdad," said the American minister.
Sit-in
According to the American official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, the 500 soldiers sent to Kuwait will then "very probably" be deployed in Iraq. Ultimately, "up to 4,000 soldiers could be deployed in the region," said the same official.
On Tuesday evening, hundreds of supporters of pro-Iran groups in Iraq held a sit-in outside the US embassy. Tensions rose after a rocket fire killed an American on Friday. The United States, which accuses Iran, responded by carrying out air raids that killed 25 fighters from Hezbollah's brigades.
The attack on the US embassy in Baghdad was the work of "terrorists", US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused on Tuesday evening of two people he accuses of having been supported by "allies of the 'Iran".
Anger
"Today's attack was orchestrated by terrorists - Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Qaïs al-Khazali - and supported by Iranian allies, Hadi al-Amari and Faleh al-Fayad," tweeted the head of American diplomacy. "All of them were photographed in front of our embassy," he also wrote, attaching three photographs supposed to show the four men.
Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis is a senior official in Hachd al-Chaabi, a coalition of Iraqi paramilitaries dominated by pro-Iran factions, accused by Washington of a rocket attack that killed an American in Iraq on Friday. Faleh al-Fayad is the head of the Hashd.
In response to the attack on Friday, the US military killed 25 fighters from Hezbollah brigades, a Hashd-affiliated Shiite armed group, over the weekend, angering thousands of pro-Iranian Iraqis who took the American Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday.
Tehran denies
Qaïs al-Khazali is the head of another Iraqi Shiite militia, Assaïb Ahl al-Haq, accused by the Americans of being responsible for several rocket attacks against their interests in Iraq. Washington's bane since their invasion of the country in 2003, Qaïs al-Khazali has been the target of American sanctions several times. Hadi al-Amari was the Iraqi Minister of Transport between 2010 and 2014. He is the head of the very powerful Badr organization, another pro-Iranian faction in Iraq.
For its part, Tehran denied being behind the violent demonstration outside the US Embassy in Baghdad and warned that it could take reprisals after US President Donald Trump held Iran responsible for the unrest and possible victims.
With AFP and Reuters
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