Iraqi protesters storm US Embassy in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - DECEMBER 31: Iraqi protesters, waving national flags and banners of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a mostly Shiite network of local armed groups trained and armed by powerful neighbour Iran, demonstrate outside the US embassy in Baghdad on December 31, 2019. Outraged Iraqi protesters on Tuesday stormed the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad, protesting Washington's attacks on armed battalions belong to Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi forces. At least 25 people were killed in weekend U.S. airstrikes on positions of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militia group, in Iraq and Syria. Hundreds of Iraqi protesters gathered early Tuesday near the embassy to show their anger at the U.S. attacks. According to an Anadolu Agency correspondent at the scene, some Iraqi protesters set fire to the walls surrounding the embassy compound. Iraqi security riot police, in turn, fired tear gas canisters to disperse crowds of protesters in front of the embassy, according to eyewitnesses. Witnesses told Anadolu Agency that the police and army reached the vicinity of the embassy in the diplomatic Green Zone and began firing tear gas to disperse the crowds and keep them away from the embassy compound. They added that the protesters threw stones and empty water bottles at the embassy. An Iraqi security source, for his part, said most of the embassy staffers had been evacuated, fearing that it would be stormed by protesters gathering in front of the gate. The source, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told Anadolu Agency: "The embassy evacuated its main employees to an unknown location as tension mounted in front of the embassy." He added, "there is a fear that the fighters in the crowd and those loyal to them may storm the embassy building," stressing that the embassy headquarters is now all but vacant.(Footage by Haydar Karaalp/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)