The United States is in the deployment phase of some 750 additional soldiers in the Middle East. So the president, Donald Trump, decided to keep the pulse with Iran, which he blamed for being responsible for the assault on Tuesday by protesters at the US embassy complex in Iraq. Iran denies any responsibility in this regard.
The security forces of the US diplomatic headquarters in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, briefly launched tear gas grenades on Wednesday morning to disperse hundreds of pro-Tehran Iraqis who gathered again in protest. On Sunday, US air forces bombed an Iraqi militia backed by Iran.
The participants in the sitting burned American flags and shouting "United States, great Satan", a slogan widely used in Iran during the Islamic revolution of 1979.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced the new military movements through Twitter in the last hours of 2019. “This deployment is an appropriate and preventive action taken in response to the increase in threat levels against personnel and facilities of United States, as we saw today in Baghdad, ”he wrote.
https://twitter.com/EsperDoD/status/1212167796102193155
More military officers are alerted that they could be activated, he added. The Associated Press talks about 3,000 military.
The announcement of Trump's next war plans in the Middle East follows a day of high tension. When it was still early in the United States, the news came that thousands of protesters, including many supporters of the pro-Iranian militia Kataeb Hezbollah, were trying to storm Washington's main diplomatic headquarters in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq.
Dozens of people managed to break into the embassy complex , putting under threat part of the American infrastructure inside.
Trump said in a tweet that Iran was "orchestrating" this attack. "They will be fully responsible." He later added that the Middle East country will pay a "high price" for eventual loss of visits or damage to US infrastructure. "This It's not a warning, it's a threat ! ”he said.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1212121026072592384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1212121026072592384&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2.com%2F%2News-F2News-Feb hundreds-troops-mideast-after-attack-embassy-compound-n1109196
The US military had carried out Sunday attacks on targets of the Kataeb Hezbollah militia, considered by the United States responsible for several hostile actions, including one that caused the death of an American contractor and left four other Americans injured.
At least 25 fighters of this Iraqi group backed by Iran died in the US operation.
Intervention of sailors
In the assault on the embassy complex in Baghdad on Tuesday there were no injuries or evacuations , according to the State Department. The armed forces sent sailors from Kuwait to strengthen the protection of the complex.
"The sailors came in, we had some great fighters, they did a fantastic job," Trump said. The president, who had asked Iraq to protect US facilities under threat in Baghdad, also thanked the Iraqi government for its response.
Protesters grouped on Tuesday before the US embassy in Baghdad. Credit: AP
Iran has denied any involvement in the attack on the embassy. Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi warned the United States of any "miscalculation" in the worsening of the confrontation.
"We are facing a kind of American obscenity and repetitive miscalculations," Mousavi said in statements reported by the local Iranian news agency, Mehr.
The Popular Mobilization Forces, under whose umbrella they group for militias recognized by the Iraqi government, said on Tuesday that bullets and tear gasses wounded at least 62 protesters, a claim that NBC News could not independently verify.
The United States has about 5,000 soldiers in Iraq to train and assist government troops in the fight against ISIS. But the Iraqi government is also allied with a powerful network of militia groups, many of which are backed or linked to Tehran, which condemned the US attacks on Sunday next to Iraq.
This hectic end of the year represented a new escalation in the power war between the United States and Iran in development in the Middle East, an area marked in the last decade by seemingly endless conflicts, particularly in Syria and Iraq.
Trump tried at the end of the day to reduce the tension accumulated during the day. Asked about the possibility of a war at his Mar-A-Lago residence in Florida, he said: "I don't think it's a good idea for Iran," report The New York Times and other media. The president added: "I want to have peace, I like peace. And Iran should want peace more than anyone."
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Assault on the United States embassy complex in Iraq. Trump accuses Iran and threatens a "strong" response